Her Story
About Rachelle
Rachelle PaulBrutus is a nonprofit professional based in Chicago, Illinois, with approximately five years of experience in the sector. She previously worked at the Chicago Department of Public Health in a government agency role before transitioning to nonprofit work, where she finds the impact on communities more rewarding. Rachelle holds a master's degree in public health with a focus on community health and completed her undergraduate studies in biochemistry. In her current role, she oversees the implementation of asthma programs, ensures appropriate execution of education and outreach initiatives, manages budgets and vendors, and collaborates with a community advisory board to tailor programming. She attributes her success to her resiliency and unwavering commitment to serving others, without allowing her accent or immigrant background to define her potential. Rachelle values integrity, honesty, dedication, and transparency in her work, and she advises others to never stop learning while staying true to themselves and persevering to create community impact.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Rachelle
01What do you attribute your success to?
My success was shaped by my resiliency and also my unwavering commitment to serving others. I've never allowed elements like my accent or me coming in a new country to limit or define my potential. I just kept the main focus and I love serving others and I think public health gave me the platform to do just that.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice is you never stop learning. Because you can have a master, you can have many letters after your name. That doesn't mean that you stop learning. So for me that was the best advice that no matter what you never stop learning and should not stop yourself from learning new things.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Be yourself, be true to yourself, and never compromise your value. When it comes to public health and making impactful change you need to stay focused and stick to the reason why you came into public health because it's not a field where you can have direct result overnight but you have to keep pushing and persevere and be determined in order to make or see the impact that you're trying to make in the community.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Challenges include funding which is limited so we have to learn to diversify the funds. The opportunity is that because of those challenges there are many opportunities in terms of partnership for people to form alliances and join forces to address issues in the community.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values are integrity, honesty, and also dedication to the work because when you talk about public health this is a never-ending thing so you need to not only push but also remain transparent with the different issues and disparities that are affecting our community.
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