Rachel Forbes, MSW, is a Professor of the Practice of Social work and the Western Colorado MSW program director at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work. She is an appointed member of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Commission on Educational Policy, the inaugural cochair of the CSWE Committee on Environmental Justice, and a former member of CSWE’s Council on Global, Learning and Practice. Rachel was the taskforce cochair for the CSWE Curricular Guide for Environmental Justice published in 2020. She is also the co-editor of the award-winning anthology: Ecosocial Work: Environmental Practice and Advocacy (NASW Press, 2023) and coauthor of the book The Intersection of Environmental Justice, Climate Change, Community and the Ecology of Life (2021). Rachel is former elected member of the Colorado Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers Board of Directors. She has taught coursework on sustainability, ecological justice, culture and place-based equity, and fostering sustainable behavior across undergraduate and graduate programs for 15 years.

Rachel’s current research and teaching examines the impacts of climate change on mental health and protective factors at the community level. Her work has been published in environmental justice and human rights journals, and has been funded by the CSWE Katherine A. Kendall Institute for International Social Work, the Hispanic Access Foundation, and Monmouth University’s Urban Coast Institute. Rachel lives in Glenwood Springs Colorado where she advocates for ecological justice and planetary health especially within rural and mountain communities.