Her Story
About Rachelle
Rachelle Valenzuela is a healthcare operations and counseling professional with experience in patient services, clinic management, substance use disorder counseling, women's health, and diagnostic coordination. She currently serves as Director of Patient Services for a non-profit homeless clinic in Marin County, where she recently led the project to expand from a two-exam room portable facility to a $10 million state-of-the-art clinic with seven exam rooms. She also works as an internship supervisor and substance use disorder counselor at a treatment facility in Hayward, where she has been for nearly 10 years, while earning clinical hours toward her LMFT certification and completing her master's degree. Her educational path includes an associate's degree in Applied Science for Medical Assisting and a bachelor's degree in psychology, followed by a drug and alcohol studies certification that enabled her to become a nationally certified drug and alcohol counselor. Valenzuela attributes her success to hard work, perseverance, and never giving up, values she applies by maintaining an open-door policy, uplifting staff, and leading with integrity and collaboration.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Rachelle
01What do you attribute your success to?
Hard work and absolutely never giving up. There were so many times in my career and my education that I just was like, let me stop, this is overwhelming. I raised a daughter completely by myself. Perseverance is my key word. Just keep pushing through. Slow and steady, I have won the race. I have met all of my career goals because I've never given up.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Don't allow your own personal biases within yourself, and that imposter syndrome that can kick in when someone believes in you to step into a role that you're unfamiliar with. Don't let those things get in your way. Having really good mentors has kept me going, and if I did not follow that advice, I do not think that I would have gotten as far as I have in my career.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Never be close-minded to opportunities. Through your career, when you remain open-minded and just keep trying to elevate little by little, opportunities open up. Build your education and also build your resume and your worth as what you bring to the table. I even tell my medical assistants that maybe you could have my job one day.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
There's a lot of competitiveness, which is sad but still very much a thing. There is a little bit of male female rivalry in healthcare leadership. The politics in it are definitely a challenge at times. Even if you are a director, there is a chain of command that you have to go about to create those changes, and sometimes they don't happen quick enough. If you can't make a change quick enough, sometimes the result is that you lose great staff members or a patient can suffer.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
First and foremost, character and integrity is one of the most important things to carry in the healthcare industry. Values of being able to hold space for someone, not just a patient. I have a huge open-door policy with my entire staff. Being a collaborative woman that works to uplift other women and encourage people to have a voice and not feel unsafe to voice that to their supervisor. I try to be the healthcare leader that I did not have, or the support system that I wished that I had. I always remind myself of what would you have wanted in this moment when you were in that position.
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