Rachel Vaca-Lubischer, MSW, MPA
Rachel Vaca-Lubischer, MSW, MPA
- Program Evaluator
Additional Information
STEPs History
Rachel has been with STEPs as a Graduate Research Assistant/Graduate Assistant from May 2018 to April 2020 and a Program Evaluator since April 2020, and has worked with the following community partners or programs: Children’s Scholarship Fund, Coalition on Human Trafficking, Community Action Partnership, Drug Overdose Prevention (DOP): Drug Use Behaviors and First Responders, Family Finding Statewide Pilot, Nebraska Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (NeCLPPP), Omaha Girls Rock, Prevention Means Progress (PMP), and RSafe. Some of the reports on which she has collaborated can be found here, on STEPs’ Digital Commons.
Education
Rachel graduated from Loyola University Chicago in 2017 with a Bachelor’s of Social Work. During her time at Loyola, she pursued her passion for immigration reform and child welfare, while learning to navigate the culture of social services in Chicago. In her desire to further understand the intersection of the business, government, and civic sectors, she decided to pursue a Master’s degree in social work at the University of Nebraska Omaha. While here, she hopes to understand how macro practice can directly benefit the network of nonprofits in a community through collaboration.
Professional Background
Rachel has worked in child welfare while serving at Cradles to Crayons as an AmeriCorps member and in the Pre-Post Hospitalization Program at Evanston Township High School. She is now pursuing program evaluation with STEPs because of her eagerness to see evidence-based practice incorporated into these and all organizations. She looks forward to learning about the Omaha area and working with Nebraska nonprofits!
Professional Interests
In the near future, Rachel wants to work as a facilitator of inter-organizational collaboration between nonprofits serving similar populations. In her time at Evanston Township High School, Cradles to Crayons, and, most recently, STEPs, she has seen organizations gain capacity in serving their target population through collaboration with other nonprofits. She is pursuing macro practice because of the strength found by those nonprofits who face difficulties such as funding restrictions, staffing challenges, and overall sustainability concerns, but have combined limited resources to accomplish a common purpose.
Something Personal
Rachel loves gardening and was raised on a corn, soybean, and hog farm. For the last five years in Chicago apartments, however, this passion has been thriving on a strictly indoor-level. She is really looking forward to spring when she might finally get to plant a real garden.