Leadership
Rachel DeGolia
Executive Director
Rachel DeGolia has worked for UHCAN since 1992, formerly as Associate Director, Communications Director and Organizing and Operations Director.
Previously, she worked in the civil liberties with the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights and the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation (formerly the National Committee to Abolish HUAC).
Education: BA, University of Chicago (1975); Masters in Public Administration - Non-Profit Management concentration (2003), Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University
Becky Martin
Outreach Coordinator
Becky lives on Florida’s gulf coast with her husband and 3 children. She formerly served as Program Organizer for the Florida Consumer Action Network and the Community In-Reach Director for the Florida School of Traditional Midwifery. She also served as Legislative Liaison for the Midwives Association of Florida, Public Education Committee Chair for the Midwives Alliance of North America; and Health Care Committee Chair for League of Women Voters of Manatee County, Florida.
Organization’s Objective
Momentum for major social change can be excruciatingly slow in building, as it has in health care. Often the political moment in which a big leap forward becomes possible will arrive unpredictably and suddenly. When that happens, as it has in the wake of the 2006 election on health care, we need strong, connected grassroots organizations ready and able to build on that political moment in the states where the opportunity is greatest. However, grassroots organizations usually are under-resourced and not really prepared to capitalize on these opportunities, especially in comparison to the heavily resourced forces that oppose social change. This is certainly the case in the U.S. today with regard to grassroots organizations dedicated to health care reform.
UHCAN’s mission is to strengthen state-based organizations and coalitions in states and nationally that can effectively engage the public, policymakers and key constituencies to achieve affordable, quality health care for all. This mission is predicated on the belief that strong state-based coalitions working for comprehensive health reform on both the state and federal levels are necessary to build the political power to win affordable, quality health care for all in the U.S. While we understand that ultimately, national reform will be necessary to achieve health care for all, progress in states is essential to push the national agenda.
In addition, strong comprehensive health reform campaigns in individual states are vitally important because they:
(1) provide lessons to policymakers about what works and what doesn’t in the US political landscape,
(2) put pressure on national political leaders to act as opportunities for national action on health reform emerge,
(3) provide immediate relief to some people victimized by our dysfunctional health care system right now and help strengthen the health care safety net upon which any future national health care system must be built, and,
(4) provide pivotal opportunities for building stronger grassroots health care advocacy coalitions.
Affordable Health Care
