Rachael Nava

Rachael Nava is the University of California’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and the Chief of Staff to President Janet Napolitano.  In this capacity, she serves as a strategic and operational partner to UC’s 10 campuses, 5 medical centers and 3 national labs. UC is $34B enterprise that serves more than 270,000 students and employs over 200,000 faculty and staff. 

She oversees the COO division which is comprised of over 800 staff with responsibility for systemwide Human Resources, Information Technology Services, Energy and Sustainability, Operational Services, Strategy and Program Management, and all business services within the Office of the President.  In addition, as Chief of Staff, she serves as the UC’s President top advisor and is responsible for all of the functions within the President’s Executive Office.

Prior to joining UC, she worked in the healthcare sector and was the Chief Operating Officer for a $1B public non-profit Medicaid health plan.  She also operated federally qualified health centers as well as designed and directed a privately funded health insurance program for low income children. Early in her career, she worked in the biotechnology sector in the area of cancer and AIDS research. She is a third generation UC alumna and a graduate of UC Santa Cruz.