Edward Nestingen Award for University YMCA Alumni

Rachael Dietkus graduated with a BA in Sociology from the University of Illinois in 2000, where she began a lifelong commitment to service and social justice. As a student, she became deeply involved with the University YMCA through Alternative Seasonal Breaks, serving as a Site Facilitator and later as a member of its Governing Board. She was also active in Amnesty International and a founding member of the Student ACLU. In 2004, she joined the YMCA staff as Development Director and later served as Program Director from 2006 to 2007. In 2010, Rachael earned her Master of Social Work from the University of Illinois, where she was a Bailey Scholar. In 2019, she began graduate studies in the Design for Responsible Innovation MFA program at UIUC, later leaving the program to serve at the White House with the United States Digital Service, where her work in public interest design and trauma-informed practice expanded significantly. 

Throughout her professional career, Rachael has held leadership and advisory roles spanning social work, design, and public service, collaborating with values-aligned teams in the United States and worldwide. Her work has included roles in higher education, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the United States Digital Corps, and the White House with the United States Digital Service, where she served as the organization's first social worker-designer. In 2018, she founded Social Workers Who Design, a consultancy advancing trauma-informed and care-centered approaches to design, research, and public systems. She frequently speaks at both design and social work conferences. She has also served as an AmeriCorps member with the Red Cross, an NGO delegate to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the Human Rights Council, a Mayor-appointed member of the Urbana Human Relations Commission, and a Governor-appointed member of the Serve Illinois Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service.

Rachael’s work sits at the intersection of care, trauma-informed practice, and public interest technology. Over more than two decades of advocacy, leadership, and practice, she has helped institutions design services, research, and systems that better support the people most affected by them. Through her efforts to strengthen ethical practice, workforce well-being, and cultures of care within complex organizations, she has influenced countless individuals and contributed meaningfully to the mission and legacy of the University YMCA and to Ed Nestingen’s enduring example of service.