Prior to joining ACT for NIH, Rachel Pollock served as a senior advisor to the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as Deputy Director of the NIH Executive Secretariat and as part of the NIH legislative affairs team. At NIH, she spearheaded efforts to transform NIH’s communication of budget requests to Congress and supported NIH leadership endeavors to educate policymakers about the agency’s life-saving research. Before moving to NIH, Pollock worked within the office of the Assistant Secretary for Financial Resources at the Department of Health and Human Services as Appropriations Director for the agency. In this position, she led a team of congressional liaisons responsible for developing and advocating for the Secretary’s priorities across nearly $90 billion in discretionary appropriations.

Pollock started her career at the Office of Management and Budget, where she spent eight years as a Legislative Analyst. She also has experience working on public health issues in the United States Senate and in the non-profit community. Pollock holds an undergraduate degree in United States History from the University of California at Berkeley and a law degree from Washington College of Law at American University.