Valdez, Rachel

About

Rachel Valdez has over 20 years of people & technology management experience, along with teaching experience in higher education.
She is currently adjunct faculty at Big Bend Community College, where she teaches Intro to Mass Communications. Rachel, a Washington State native, majored in Communications & Social Sciences at the University of Washington (UW) and earned her masters’ degree in Communications, Digital Media Management from UW. She is a doctoral student at Fielding Graduate University earning a PhD in Psychology with an emphasis in Media Technology. She comes from a multi-cultural background of Spanish(Iberian), Native American (Blackfeet), Irish, Italian and more.
She is an entrepreneur and has successfully managed her own company. She currently is the VP, People & Culture at Forterra NW. She was previously in senior management for T-Mobile USA and Microsoft Corporation where she oversaw global learning and business development programs and was a strong advocate for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.
In her own time, she enjoys mentoring students and entrepreneurs, playing guitar and piano and enjoying beach time with her family, friends and two golden retrievers