Key Facts
Career & Education
About
Rachel Cohen Gerrol is the Co-Founder and CEO of Nexus and a National Board Member of Birthright Israel Foundation. Raised in an interfaith family with a Jewish father (Pete Cohen, a Princeton alumnus who distanced himself from Judaism) and a mother's family of seven generations of Christian ministers, she grew up without Jewish connections, including singing in a church choir. Her transformative Birthright Israel trip in 2000 (inaugural cohort) ignited her Jewish identity and advocacy for Israel, influencing her younger brother and sister to also participate. She attended Princeton University around 1999 and studied at the University of Pennsylvania, where she organized Jewish events post-Birthright. She met her husband (surname Gerrol) at her third 'Shabbat Hoppin'' event in Washington, DC; his mother was born in a displaced persons camp to Holocaust survivors. Her career includes roles as Founding Executive Director of PVBLIC Foundation (organizing the UN Media for Social Impact Summit and developing the 'It's On Us' campaign with the White House), Director of Young Adult Initiatives at the Schusterman Foundation, and Special Assistant to Ambassador Nancy Rubin (8 years) at the U.S. Representative to the UN Human Rights Commission. She founded The Survivor Initiative in 2012 to aid impoverished U.S. Holocaust survivors, co-founded the IMPACTHAUS Social Impact Film Series at Sundance, co-chaired the G8 Young Summit in 2013, and organized the White House Conference on Next Gen Philanthropy & Impact Investing in 2014. Starting in 2007, she created 'Shabbat Hoppin'', 'Mitzvah Hop', and 'Sukkah Hop' programs in Washington, DC. Board and advisory roles include Chair of Jumpstart's Board; Advisor to Charity Miles, BeeSpace, Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, and 'It's On Us'; and past roles on the Bloomberg Genesis Generation Challenge Evaluation Panel, Invisible Children Advisory Council, Classy Awards Leadership Council, and Girl Up (UN Foundation) Advisory Council. Awards include Jewish Girl of the Year (2011, gathertheJews.com), one of the 99 Most Influential Foreign Policy Leaders Under 33 (Diplomatic Courier), Wexner Heritage Fellow, and Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Her projects have been featured in NY Times, Financial Times, Atlantic, Forbes, Vanity Fair, Barron’s, Inc., and Huffington Post. Social media: Twitter/X @rachelgerrol.