Rachel is the Chief Executive Officer of Age Connects Morgannwg, a regional charity working with older people living in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Bridgend and Merthyr Tydfil – a position she has held since 2005. She is also a Non-Executive Director of Age Connects Wales, a registered charity that works across Wales via national partnership projects and services. In 2017, she was elected as the National Third Sector Representative to the Cwm Taf Morgannwg Regional Partnership Board (CTM RPB), becoming chair in May 2018 and being re-elected as chair for a third year in May 2020.   

Rachel began her third sector career in 1995, when she joined the Care & Repair movement – first as an employee of a local agency, then as a board member of Care & Repair Cymru until she stood down as chair in 2018. In 2014, Rachel led Age Connects to deliver a Community Asset Transfer Project that will transform a council-owned older people’s day centre into a vibrant Community Hub in Aberdare. The project, called Cynon Linc, has attracted over £2.6m of investment from a range of sources, which will allow the hub to offer community meeting space, day-care facilities for up to 29 children, a GP practice, a bistro and dementia café, sensory facilities, an Info Hub and the charity’s headquarters.   

In her capacity as chair of the CTM RPB, Rachel is also the chair of the RPB workstream of the Together For Children and Young People Programme and the Protect Workstream Lead of the region’s COVID-19 Test Trace Protect Programme. 

She lives with her family in Ynysybwl, and her spare time is spent watching rugby, cooking, gardening and spending time with her granddaughter. 

Her favourite quote is: “In order to succeed, we must first believe we can…”, followed by “We’re gonna need a bigger boat”!