Rachael Garnick is the Pennsylvania Coalition Manager at Teach Plus, where she leads the Pennsylvania Literacy Coalition (PLC) to advance comprehensive, evidence-based literacy policy and secure sustainable state investment in structured literacy. A proud Philadelphia native, Rachael brings a deep commitment to service and educational equity to her work. Under her leadership, the PLC mobilizes educators, families, and community partners to drive systemic change through policy advocacy, grassroots organizing, and signature events including the Pennsylvania Literacy Summit and statewide Day of Action. In its first year, the Coalition helped advance landmark statewide literacy reform—elevating early literacy as a core education priority in Pennsylvania and securing new investment in evidence-based reading instruction.
Rachael began her career in education as a Teach For America corps member in New York City, where she taught early childhood and elementary students and witnessed firsthand the consequences of the literacy crisis. Discovering the science of reading transformed her teaching practice and strengthened her belief that literacy is foundational not only to educational equity, but also to informed civic participation and a healthy democracy. This conviction now drives her work to ensure every Pennsylvania student receives high-quality literacy instruction and every educator has the training and support to deliver it. Rachael is a graduate of Haverford College and Relay Graduate School of Education, and a former Fulbright Scholar in the Canary Islands of Spain. She serves on the steering committee for Read by 4th, Philadelphia’s citywide early literacy campaign housed at the Free Library of Philadelphia, serves on the Advisory Board of the ALLIED Hub at Drexel University, and is a 2026 Buchholz Fellow with the Committee of 70. In her free time, Rachael enjoys playing tennis, tracking her latest reads on Goodreads, planning her next hiking adventure, hosting Shabbat, and spending time with her cats, Ollie and Leo.
