Rachel Weidinger

Rachel Weidinger (they/them) Raised in central Ohio in a blue-collar family, Rachel started working early. Before age 25 they worked in fast food, restaurants, landscaping, telemarketing, and grocery stores. Rachel organized with Lesbian Avengers, won anonymous HIV testing in her rural college campus, and shut down live national TV broadcast to stop the escalation of the war in Iraq. In the 25 years since those formative campaigns, Rachel has held professional roles in strategy, communications, capacity building, research, and organizational development. Rachel was the founding ED of Upwell, a social media PR agency whose sole client was the ocean. Their work has been featured in nine books, seven academic articles, and in Dwell, Democracy Fund, Fast Company, Frank, Personal Democracy Forum, Shenzhen Biennale, SSIR, SXSW, and Upworthy. After several decades in the Bay Area, they are a new transplant to Saginaw, Michigan, living with Long Covid.