Over 20 years working with diverse and complex workplaces across the private, public, healthcare and nonprofit sectors. More than fifteen of those years were in human resources and labour relations, the past six focused on employee relations and complex investigations. The work has covered recruitment, policy, disability case management, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring and senior HR partnership at enterprise technology companies.
Trained in trauma-informed practice and in working with neurodivergent people, including work on SAP's Autism at Work launch in Vancouver and the customized employment pilot that introduced the model to BC through Open Door Group. Complaints involving disability, mental health or neurodiversity are where that background matters most. How those investigations run →
This practice fills the gap where organizations make avoidable mistakes because no one asked the hard questions early enough.
Rachel grew up in Salmon Arm, BC, and now lives in Vancouver with her partner and their teenager. She has worked in Toronto and Vancouver, starting her career in marketing. She later went back to school to study photography and film, moved into project and change management, and landed in HR more or less by accident.
Along the way she has worked in healthy workplaces and in toxic ones, and she knows from the inside what a complaint can do to the people around it. No workplace is perfect, and humans are messy, but with insight and empathy they can change.
Outside of work, Rachel weaves, writes daily and reads widely. A lifelong learner and former marathon runner, she is currently pursuing a Master of Laws. She brings her Quaker practice and its values of integrity and equality to how she approaches the work.
Most recently Senior HR Partner at Unity (Americas), with a focus on employee relations, investigations and compliance.
Bachelor of Human Resources and Labour Relations (BHRLR) with Distinction, Athabasca University. Marketing Management Diploma, Douglas College. Disability studies.
Workplace Investigations Certificate, Rubin Thomlinson (2024)
Introduction to Private Investigation, British Columbia, Professional Security Knowledge Network, developed by the Professional Investigators' Association of British Columbia (2025)
Trauma Informed Practice Micro-Credential, Coast Mountain College (2024)
HR Management Certificate, Simon Fraser University, including Employment Law (2024)
Certificate in Intercultural Communication and Global Citizenship, Mount Allison University (2023)
Constitutional Law and Employment Law, Queen's University (2023)
Project Management, University of British Columbia (2023)
Customized Employment training, Douglas College, through the Community Living British Columbia pilot project (2012)
Leadership Development, Thompson Rivers University (2011)
The process is built around the people in it, with the same fairness for complainants, respondents and witnesses. Every party hears the substance of the allegations, has a full opportunity to respond, and is asked what they need to take part, with accommodations provided where needed. Interviews are trauma-informed, which shapes how the process runs but not how the evidence is weighed. Credibility is tested against the rest of the evidence and what is most likely to have happened, never on demeanour alone, following the long-standing test in Faryna v. Chorny. Findings are made on a balance of probabilities.
British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario, and for remote workplaces.