Rachel Foster

Rachel Foster has been dedicated to fighting injustice for over 35 years. She is a 2026 Time 100 honoree, the magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Rachel  has been an advocate at the Tompkins County Task Force for Battered Women and Sanctuary for Families, a community organizer at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, and an attorney and board officer at Brooklyn Legal Services, as well as a board member of the Citizens Committee for Children, Brooklyn Bridge Animal Welfare Coalition, and Community Board Two in Brooklyn. She was Director of New Abolitionists, a national campaign to raise awareness about sex trafficking. Rachel was co-chair of the New York State Women’s Bar Association Human Trafficking Committee.

In 2016, Rachel co-founded World Without Exploitation, the largest national anti-trafficking coalition. She received the New Yorkers Who Make a Difference Award from United Neighborhood Houses for her work representing disenfranchised New Yorkers and was honored by the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and World Without Exploitation for her outstanding commitment to justice and equality for women and girls. She was an adjunct professor at the NYU Silver School of Social Work, teaching a course in sex trafficking, and has given lectures in the US and abroad. Rachel writes on issues of gender-based violence, recently focusing on the search for justice for the Epstein survivors.

In 2016, Rachel co-founded the Brooklyn Cat Cafe, a one-of-a-kind not-for-profit animal shelter and low-cost veterinary clinic, that has hosted over 315,000 visitors and handled over 16,000 adoptions.

As Founder and President of Heights Advisors, she does social impact real estate development, building the first ground up domestic violence shelter in the country, with apartments housing over 100 survivors, that allows families to exit abusive situations with their pets. Rachel developed a transitional family shelter in Brooklyn with 165 apartments housing over 500 individuals and a family shelter in the Bronx with 160 apartments also housing over 500 individuals.

Rachel graduated from Cornell University, recently serving on various university councils, and from Brooklyn Law School.