About Rachel

Rachel Ruttenberg is an economic justice, health care, and civil rights policy expert. Throughout her career, Rachel has focused on putting progressive policy ideas into action for vulnerable communities across Illinois - working toward racial equity and improving people’s lives.

Rachel began her professional career with Chicago Public Schools, where she supported operations and improved access to technology for all schools. She led the Family Defense Center (now part of Ascend Justice), a legal aid nonprofit focused on reforming the child welfare system in Illinois, which served hundreds of Illinois families each year. She then held a senior policy and advocacy role at Heartland Alliance, an anti-poverty and human rights organization. There, she led a team that built coalitions of advocates and directly impacted people and fought for state policy change. She worked on issues related to housing insecurity, food insecurity, healthcare, behavioral health, criminal legal system reform, gun violence, and economic justice. Her team led the elimination of predatory payday loans, the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the support of the largest guaranteed income programs in Illinois. Most recently, as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, she continued supporting economic justice issues, such as medical debt relief and guaranteed income, as well as environmental justice, digital equity, and housing.

Now, Rachel is ready to put her extensive policy background to work for the people of the 9th State Senate District in the Illinois General Assembly, where she will be a champion for the progressive values and policy areas she’s worked on for two decades.

Rachel grew up on the north shore of Chicago, where her large Jewish family still has its roots. She lives in Evanston with her husband and their two daughters.

In Evanston, Rachel helped relaunch the local chapter of Moms Demand Action and supported efforts to pass a safe storage ordinance. She has been involved as a leader of the Democratic Party of Evanston for seven years and currently serves as the Evanston Deputy Committeeperson.  

Rachel earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from University of Wisconsin-Madison, a master’s degree in communications from Northwestern University, and a law degree from Chicago-Kent College of Law.