Rachel Bennett

Email: RachelB_at_preventioninstitute_dot_org

Rachel Cushing Bennett, MPH, MURP, manages People, Parks, and Power (P3), the first national funding initiative in the U.S. to support power building by community-based organizations to reverse deep seated park and green space inequities in Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities. P3 is a joint effort of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, led and managed by Prevention Institute. Rachel manages the $7 million national grantmaking program as well as various field building, research, network building, and strategic communication efforts focused on park equity.

Rachel managed the Built Environment Policy Advocacy Fund, a multi-year initiative that supported grassroots policy advocacy on park equity, transportation justice, and food justice in Los Angeles County. Since 2013, she has co-led the Healthy, Equitable, Active Land Use (HEALU) Network, a network of allies working to promote health equity and racial justice through land use planning decisions and public finance measures in Los Angeles County.

Rachel is an experienced grant writer and co-author of several publications on health equity and the built environment. She is a proud native of Oakland, CA, where she and her husband are raising two vivacious daughters. Rachel earned dual master’s degrees in Public Health & Urban and Regional Planning from UCLA and a BA in Psychology from the University of California, Davis.