Rachel Avilla
President, Co-Founder and Project Manager

Rachel Avilla has been a Wildlife Rehabilitator since 2003. After graduating from college with a BS in Environmental Science, she started volunteering/working for The Bird Rescue Center in Santa Rosa, CA, then moved on to Lindsay Wildlife Hospital in Walnut Creek, CA. She has more recently volunteered with SoCal Parrot Rescue, in San Diego County, CA Belize Bird Rescue in Belmopan, Belize and Native Songbird Care and Conservation in Sebastopol, CA. She also joined the California Council for Wildlife Rehabilitators (CCWR) board of directors in 2017 and took on Presidency between 2018-2021. She is the co-founder of the Wild Neighbor’s Database Project and has supported Devin through the development of all our projects by adding the human element to the design, managing the projects and helping the customers.

Since The Wild Neighbors Database Project has been a booming success it has allowed her the opportunity to visit organizations nationally and internationally. With this experience, she has developed a unique view into wildlife rehabilitation internationally and has made it her goal to discover a specific leverage point of this field. How can wildlife rehabilitators best continue to improve their skills and knowledge as well as bring its hard work and knowledge to the forefront of One Health to use that collective knowledge to better help wildlife as a whole?

As much as she loves working directly with the animals and wishes she could contribute more to direct animal care, she has come to the acknowledgement that at this point her skills are best used in project management and organizing the community as a whole.