Rachel Spates

Rachel Spates is currently the Director, Communications and Employee Engagement for Sun Life U.S. A marketing communications professional with extensive experience in the sports and financial services industries, Rachel has been a member of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst Alumni Association Board of Directors since 2016. She recently completed a two-year term as President of the Alumni Association.

In 2024, she joined the Board of Community Rowing, Inc. in Boston, the same club where she learned the sport of rowing as an adult. She was previously Vice President of the Boston Chapter of WISE (Women in Sports and Events, Inc.), a networking organization for women in the sports and events industries in New England. She also served on the Young Professionals Board of Good Sports, Inc., an organization that gives all kids the lifelong benefits of sport and physical activity by providing equipment, apparel and footwear to those most in need.

When not working, she’s either skiing, rowing, hiking, biking, or surfing, and completed a successful summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in 2018. She began taking flying lessons in 2022 and obtained her private pilot certificate in 2023.

Rachel holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Boston University and a master’s degree in Sport Management from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.