Rachel Buchan ’15 has taught in Turkey, worked on Capitol Hill, and earned her master’s degree in Australia, and now, she has begun her next chapter back in her hometown — the Magic City.

“The more time I spent outside Birmingham – and loved so much of the bigger world – I’ve considered what my role in Birmingham looks like,” she says.

In March 2022, Buchan joined the City of Birmingham as an economic development project administrator. She manages development projects for the city within her greater goals for equitable social change that are inseparable from her educational, work, and service experiences.

Buchan looks to her 2015-2016 Fulbright Award to teach English in Karabük, Turkey as a pivotal point in her public service career. She was deeply inspired by her students, many of whom were refugees during the height of the Syrian civil war.

“Getting to know my students and their stories totally changed my life,” she says. “I always knew I wanted to do something for the public good, but I realized I needed to know a lot more about government to have an impact on people’s lives.”

Buchan returned to the states with her students in mind – keeping a photo of them on her desk at every position she’s held since – and continued to pursue a career in public policy. She began an impressive series of internships at Human Rights First, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, and the Office of Barack and Michelle Obama before joining Capstone, a small research firm on Capitol Hill.

In 2018, Buchan was nominated by the Rotary Club of Birmingham for the Rotary Peace Fellowship. She applied for and was accepted to The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, which she chose among Rotary’s peace centers around the world for its particular emphasis on good governance as a part of peace.

She began the program in 2020 and earned her master’s degree in peace and conflict studies with a focus on equity, inclusion, and sustainable development. Her time abroad and her studies made her think more about her goals – the ones emphasized in her Karabük classroom and developed in D.C. – in the context of her home Birmingham, alongside a team like the one Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin has put together.

Buchan’s work in the Department of Innovation and Economic Opportunity allows her to work across the vibrant portfolio her office covers, including business diversity, workforce development, and business expansion and retention efforts. Managing various projects within her role, Buchan is developing a system to measure Birmingham’s inclusive development and oversees economic development grant funds for public and private entities.

“I’m compelled by the City’s dedication to equity and liberation and social change, and a lot of that starts with equity in an economic context,” she says. “All along, I’ve remained passionate about public service as a part of peace related to my students. How to honor those stories really colors my own dedication to public service.”