CPA and MBA-holder Rachel Strittmatter could have made millions if she had remained in the corporate world. However, she ditched these money-making opportunities in favor of making a real difference through the non-profit sector. Joining Dr. Sylvia Morris and Dr. Angela Walker, she looks back on the journey that led to her current role as VP of Finance at The Jane Goodall Institute, where she oversees result-driven operations. She explains how she brings a different flavor to her financial leadership by combining her CPA and MBA backgrounds, allowing her to remain technical while leading with purpose. Rachel also shares valuable lessons she learned in four years working with Jane Goodall herself, from her groundbreaking work on chimpanzees to her inspiring leadership approach.
Music courtesy of Dealer’s Choice Sound Recordings, Inc.
Music artist: djezi
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Making The Leap Into The Non-Profit Sector With Rachel Strittmatter
Conservation & Mission-Driven Impact: Be a Better Human
We have a guest who is living proof that you can lead with your values and your spreadsheets at the same time.
That’s right. She’s a CPA, an MBA holder, and a finance leader at the Jane Goodall Institute, where she works at the intersection of conservation and mission-driven impact.
She made a deliberate leap from the for-profit world into the nonprofit sector and hasn’t looked back. With a background rooted in accounting and a passion for meaningful work, she brings both sharp financial expertise and a big-picture perspective to everything she does.
Outside of the office, you’ll find her in Leesburg, Virginia, wrangling her pets and hunting for treasures at the thrift store. We are here for all of it.
Welcome to the show, Rachel Strittmatter.
Thank you so much for having me, Sylvia, and Angela.
We are so excited that you are here. We have so many questions about you and certainly the Jane Goodall Institute. We need to be transparent. We are all Hoyas. We met at the Georgetown University Women’s Forum in March, 2026.
How Rachel Land In Accounting
I heard about you, Rachel, because of your fantastic outfit. Apparently, that stimulated a very interesting conversation. I couldn’t wait to hear more. We’re going to start where we normally start in your origin story. Where did you grow up? What was life like for you coming up? How did you land in accounting? Was it a calling, a practical choice, or did someone or something point you in that direction?
Accounting and practicality go hand in hand, so I’ll touch on that, for sure. I’m from the wonderful State of Pennsylvania. I grew up outside of the city of Pittsburgh with my family in a small enough town where you knew almost everyone, but big enough where we had enough interesting things going on in our lives. I grew up with my younger sister. That was my only sibling. To this day, she’s still my nearest and dearest best friend, which I feel grateful for. It doesn’t come up a lot in career talk, but that blessing, stability, and family do help ground you throughout your whole life.
We were raised in a creative, joyful, and high-performing household. We were encouraged to work hard. That stemmed from our grandparents’ generation through my parents. Growing up now, or where I am now in life, in my late 30s, observing so many wonderful kids and teens in my life that I love, there’s so much pressure I perceive. I don’t know if that’s fair to say as a non-parent in life, but there’s so much pressure. Sports in Loudoun County out here in Virginia feel like all or nothing. In academics, it is all As or nothing.
Where that has landed me since living here for under a year is a lot of reflection as we come to know and love these children and teens even more as well. We had it so good. We had this, like, “Do well academically. Play sports. Play soccer, softball, or volleyball. Play the sports. Have the birthday parties.” I have come to value that balance in life. We were raised as whole people, not having to narrowly focus and have high pressure, but we still had an expectation to work hard, whatever that would mean.
For me, that transpired in academics. I did have some external pressure to do well and perform well, but it was internal for me. It felt like something I could control. It felt like something I could get my arms around. I took pride in doing well academically. That led me to all of our childhood dreams. Maybe you had a doctor dream, a fireman, or an astronaut. I was one of those animal-loving kids who thought I would be a veterinarian.
You came full circle.
There is such a throughline to what we might talk about here in terms of having a foundation and loving animals, but it was realizing young, as I joined my father in every single veterinary appointment ever, trauma included, that loving animals didn’t necessarily mean I wanted to medicate or operate on them. Coming to terms with that and then looking at my surroundings as a teen, and what I was liking to do was that the business world, in general, appealed to me.
I was responsible for a lot of fundraisers. I even started young with lemonade stands. There’s such an influence from my mom because the woman does not do anything partially. If her daughters were having a lemonade stand, we would have the biggest signs and the cookie add-ons. We had music playing. That held through to me through college, when I was still running fundraisers.
Rachel, did you go to undergrad at Georgetown as well?
No, I went to the University of Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh is beautiful.
I’ve never been.
It’s a beautiful industrial city. The campus of Pitt, as it’s affectionately more known as, is in its own little urban center in a popular area called Oakland. That’s where my four years were spent.
With that one question, we could go in so many different directions. That whole can of worms that you opened up about how kids are growing up and pressured. I know I grew up the same as you. I tried every sport. Swimming was my forte, but I tried track, got left behind, and all the things. It was what you could do. There wasn’t the pressure where you had to join an elite team to be able to excel. Same pressures in terms of school. My parents had both gone to college, and they expected me to do my best, but that was it. It didn’t have to be a 4.2 GPA.
A 4.0 was never good enough at a certain point somewhere along the lines.
Who knew? There’s something to be said, whether you’re a parent or a non-parent. I’ve heard people going back to that as not overloading the kids with all of these expectations and letting them navigate and figure things out on their own. I love that aspect. You came about to your business. It sounds like the support of your parents and allowing you to figure that out on your own, there’s something to be said there, too. It’s very interesting.
I wanted to be a vet also. I loved animals, still love animals. I’ve probably said this on the show before, but I thought to myself, I think I’d be too emotionally attached to animals than people. Doesn’t that sound awful? They can’t talk. They can’t advocate for themselves. I did have a question when you were talking. Was your dad a veterinarian, or did you go to the appointments with him?
We grew up with pets, and I was the kid who wanted to go with him to those appointments.
You were brave.
It’s hard to do sometimes.
Rachel’s Time At The University Of Pittsburgh
Certainly, we want to hear about your Georgetown experience, but tell us about being at Pitt. How did going to the University of Pittsburgh shape you personally and professionally?
Something I loved about the school and something I forgot to answer in your question before about accounting. I’ll make that short and sweet. I was raised in it. My grandfather had five kids. He was a part-time tax accountant in addition to being a high school principal. Three of his five kids were accountants, my mom included.
My mom started her career in that, so it was something I knew. I knew I liked math. I’ve already explained that I like the business world. It’s like 1 plus 1 equal 2 in this scenario. I knew it. Also, as unsexy as it sounds, even in my late 30s, it was predictable and safe. There is a need for me to want to feel some sort of certainty over what I was dedicating my life, my income, and my studies to.
That’s why we went into medicine as well.
A lot of things clicked for that. That landed me in the business school at the University of Pittsburgh. I love that it wasn’t too far from home. My hometown wasn’t the town that most people tried to run away from. If anything, my going an hour and a half away, at least in my friend’s circle, I was a big city girl. It was a big leap at that time to leave the comforts of what I would describe as a pretty quintessential hometown.
Is your hometown closer to West Virginia or closer to Ohio?
Closer to Ohio-ish. It is Northeast of Pittsburgh, but still very Western Pennsylvania. It’s a little town called Indiana. The town, not the state. As a kid, you didn’t even know there was a state of Indiana. It’s a college town. That’s where my mom dedicated her whole career, starting with accounting and landing as an associate dean at the business college. It was a great example for me. I liked what she surrounded us with growing up. The business school path for me felt very energizing and comfortable at the same time, if that makes sense.
That sounds amazing.
We would grow up running around the halls of her buildings. She was that working mom who would take us with her. That exposure and drive helped shape me, too.
It’s important. When did you know you needed an MBA?
I was about eight years into the workforce and had experienced some time as a public accountant at one of the largest firms.
One of the Big Five.
One of the Big Four when I started. They dwindled from maybe at one point, but they kept consolidating and merging. It was the highlight of my life to graduate in that field and get a position at one of those firms.
That’s a big deal.
I still feel like it’s my alma mater, if that makes sense in a way, in addition to schools. It was such a formative place to begin and spend over six years in my first years working at one of the Big Four. I worked for Deloitte. I’m very proud of that time and who I worked with there.
All of those connections, in addition to your Georgetown connections, I would imagine, helped pave the path to where you are now because that’s a big community that is very well-connected.
I don’t want to jump ahead, but what I do at the Jane Goodall Institute is I feel like I’m finding myself to be so grateful for the two significant career experiences I’ve had before here. I pull from them so much. My two previous work experiences before I became a nonprofit leader were both in large multinational settings. I’ve been at the Jane Goodall Institute for over four years. I have never looked back, but I am so grateful for those challenging, high-paced environments.
The expectations they put on you could have been defeating sometimes because they’re all about feedback, performance, and the next promotion. It’s a rat race at times, but I am so grateful for the incubator of talent I experienced for those eight years before Georgetown and before my career did pivot. I think of them so fondly. I’m so grateful that I experienced what I did there. I didn’t answer Sylvia’s question at all.
That was perfect.
Why A CPA Took The MBA Approach
That was great. For us, Sylvie would echo the same thing. Residency is the same for us in terms of how it’s grinding and grueling. It’s sometimes that rigorous feet-in-the-water, running as soon as you get there, type of approach. Training is invaluable to what you do in the future. If you can survive that, you can survive anything else in your career. You were entrenched as a CPA with these big companies. What prompted the MBA approach? I know for CPAs, that’s all that they’ve done, and they’ve been very successful.
I had left Deloitte. I was happily working for a large multinational corporation in Arlington, which was Nestle. I was enjoying my coworkers and what I did there, but I was starting to think, “I left audit. I’m not going to be an auditor or an audit partner in my career.” Not to be cheesy about the name of your show, but I made that first leap. Even from Indiana, Pennsylvania, to Pittsburgh, I eventually leaped to Washington, DC. I eventually left Deloitte and moved to Nestle.
I learned in myself that once I tear myself away from my comfort zone, which at the time was Deloitte, where I previously lived, I’m susceptible to continued challenge. At my next career at Nestle, I was saying, “What’s next in accounting for me?” I had a very dear friend at Nestle who was doing the Georgetown Executive MBA program. He was telling me all about it. His face is lighting up. He loves it. He was like, “Rachel, you should think about this.” Two weeks, and I’m in. They were like, “You can start in our class that’s starting in a few weeks.” I’m still an accountant here. Our brains can spin with this type of change fast.
You were like, “How much does it cost? How much is the funding for this?”
I had a wonderful boss at Nestle at the time. She was so supportive. I said, “I need to do this now.” With the executive MBA program, most of the folks are still working full-time. You’re going to class on weekends for two years, juggling your project work, papers, and deliverables on nights and weekends, so you need an understanding environment. I recognized I had that at Nestle, and I said, “I’d be crazy to watch this go by.” All around that same time, I met my husband.
People who usually take an executive MBA program are still working full-time. If you are taking one, you will need an understanding work environment. Share on XYou were busy.
2019 was when all this leaping started again for me when I decided to commit to the executive program at Georgetown. My life starts changing again. I don’t think I needed the MBA. I certainly didn’t feel stuck with what I was doing. Nestle is huge, and there are lots of opportunities, but I liked school. I liked learning.
I thought, “I live in this city now in DC.” That’s when I’ve lived here for a while now. I was like, “What a great way to insert more roots, develop an alma mater, and meet the people that live and work here, too.” I had this support system at Nestle at home, and I said, “Let’s do it.” I wasn’t trying to cling to, “I need a promotion. I need to get out of my field, so I must go do the MBA.” I was in a fortunate position to approach it with curiosity and what could happen.
To learn and grow. I love that.
Transition From Nestle To The Jane Goodall Institute
How did you then move from Nestle? It sounds like things were great there. You’ve got your MBA. How did the opportunity at the Jane Goodall Institute come up?
Thank you for shattering my favorite Georgetown story ever. I got in quickly, and they were like, “You can come join our class that’s starting.” I didn’t have a lot of time to process what was happening and what I got myself into. One of the most notoriously difficult courses in the MBA program, or at least the executive program, is the statistics course.
Say no more. That and organic chemistry.
I don’t know much about that, but the statistics course in the executive program holds up to that. It is so difficult, in fact, that they offer a prep class. Being that I had gotten into the program, I didn’t even know what I didn’t know yet. I came to find out there were multiple mixers with the class and multiple orientations. I missed all of it. Due to the timeline of my entrance into the program, I’m finding out I’m in, and then they’re like, “In three days, there’s an optional prep course if you’d like to start that.”
It’s my second time after interviewing for the program on the Georgetown campus. You don’t know where to park. You don’t know what floor you’re on in the business school. I walk into the stadium seating. A lot of folks were older than me in the program. I was intimidated, like, “What am I doing here?” I sit down next to this woman. She has, I believe, a notebook with an elephant on it and a pink pencil. Immediately, I was like, “I’m going to be okay.”
She was so warm and so conversational. We talked about the elephants. I said, “Elephants are one of my favorite exotic animals.” She’s telling me all about her work in Africa and conservation and her run-ins with elephants and rhinos. I’m sitting there, and my eyes are big. We had an immediate kinship. Fast forward two years, and she is my executive director at the Jane Goodall Institute. That is my story of Georgetown for me in one story.
It was how it was meant to be. This nonprofit finance world is a constant balancing act. You already have your storytelling with data. You’re a natural storyteller. We can already tell that. You’re dealing with stewardship, compliance, and impact. What does this great financial leadership you have look like in the mission-driven space? For us and anyone tuning in, what do you wish more people understood about it?
The MBA plus the CPA is, for me personally, what makes my pursuit of great financial leadership here at the Jane Good Institute possible. I think of it as two different brains that I have the pleasure of having. The CPA is technical, precise, and compliant. You can rely on me. I have proven through this exam and my career experience that I can understand accounting complexities. I can run a good audit, which is proven true. It gets you in the door, the CPA, but my MBA is what set me apart to take on a true leadership role.
I did transition from a managerial role into a leadership role, which was scary, into an industry I’d never been in before. That MBA helped me show the people that mattered at the time that I was more than just an accountant. When you start talking about leaders of accounting and finance, you need to be more than that, in my opinion. You need to be able to go into a boardroom. You need to be able to talk to your fellow senior leaders about the story of the numbers and the strategy.
It’s not all about, “1 plus 1 didn’t equal 2 here, so we have to make changes.” You have to say, “What else can we do? What else does this mean? Our budget looks dicey next year. Let’s walk through that. Let’s also communicate that and why.” That’s what I think those two brains of mine, the CPA and MBA, have helped me grow into this role and find success in it. I’m so grateful for that. That’s one thing I wish people knew.
There are so many technical things I could list off if you or your audience would be interested in them. One thing I wish more people would know is that if you’re ever feeling stuck being a leader in this field. It means there are so many great executors and so many people who are so proficient, more than me, at true accounting. All of its complexities and nuances. If you’re not comfortable telling the story of the numbers, or you’re not comfortable leading an organization or helping to lead them through a change in the numbers. You will hit ceilings that will stop you from getting those higher-level roles.
If you are not comfortable telling the story of the numbers of your organization, you will hit a ceiling that will stop you from getting higher-level roles. Share on XIt can be uncomfortable at first, but I advise anyone practicing that to practice telling stories that are rooted in numbers because that’s what makes people understand them, too. You can’t just fire around spreadsheets and charts and expect the message to be heard. If people aren’t hearing your message, you’re not going to find much success with your financial situation.
Sage advice. Thank you.
I’m so glad you brought that up because the stereotype of an accountant or the CFO is that they are the numbers person. They are. However, you have to help me or your audience care about the numbers and lead people. You have to let them know, “I see what the number is. This is the person, entity, or meaning behind this number. We can get to this next point, although it may be painful or difficult, but there is a way forward.”
The Intersection Of Conservation And Mission-Driven Impact
When people don’t understand that or can’t communicate that in a way, then it makes us all entrenched in our own positions. Thank you so much for sharing that. I do have a question about the Jane Goodall Institute as far as the CFO. Does that mean you have been to the continent of Africa? Have you been to Rwanda? Have you had that kind of experience? Tell us more. We’re always interested in travel.
I’m holding back some emotions to talk about it, even hearing you say Jane Goodall Institute and watching both of your faces light up. That’s how I feel, too. Our work at the Jane Goodall Institute, I am specifically a leader of the US chapter. Due to our laws in the United States around taxable donations, we are also one of the largest chapters in terms of revenue generation, which allows us to support direct mission work in four African countries.
Our Jane Goodall mission more broadly supports more than these four countries in Africa, but I specifically have the pleasure of working with teams and people in Tanzania, where it all started for Jane in the ‘60s, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and the Republic of Congo. I remember being interviewed for this role. There was a lot of, “Tell us how you won’t think in black and white. Why won’t you think in black and white?” That resonates with me four years later. It’s a counterintuitive feeling for some accountants not to think in black and white all the time.
I’ve had the opportunity to go to Tanzania twice and the Republic of Congo. I have plans to go to Uganda. I’m sitting behind my computer most days. Once you go there and see what wonderful work my colleagues get to see and do all the time, you are so changed when you come back to your desk again. The numbers look different. The numbers around caregivers in the Republic of Congo, where we have 150 chimpanzees in our care. The numbers in the hiring needed. The infrastructure support needed. The numbers start telling the story you’ve learned. It makes me truly better at my job, but more than that, a better human.
My colleagues in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been going through rebel warfare. I was in Tanzania when an election came about. The Internet was shut down. Planes were grounded. Our board members couldn’t get out of the country on the day that they were supposed to. I’m a results-driven person. I’m driven, like, “We have to perform. We have to meet deadlines. We have to communicate well.” You can’t push beyond a reasonable limit on these people that you’re not with every day, not understanding what they’re experiencing.
The emphasis on getting this job around not being a black and white thinker was so clear to me so quickly. It’s something that’s important to me as even a person because of this role is to understand that the people on the other side of the email or the computer, you don’t always know exactly what they’re going through and what they might need to be supported by you. Ultimately, my field is a support field to make sure the mission gets delivered.
Ebola is top of mind for me as a public health person. I am hopeful and prayerful that your teams in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda are safe and have whatever equipment they need to protect themselves.
So far, they are. It’s a very real consideration that’s important for a finance leader to understand and communicate to my team. I have the pleasure of sitting on the senior leadership team, where I get to hear from fundraising, programs, and everyone. My team only hears from me at times. It’s important to convey exactly what you said. You’re building team members who have perspectives that make them better support roles as well.
Privilege Of Working With Jane Goodall
Such great advice. I’m hearing everything you say, and I want to ask you a follow-up question on Jane Goodall, but I’m reflecting on the CFO and people in that position in the institutions I’ve worked in. That’s the hospital setting, whether it was an HMO, a private practice attached to a hospital, or even with a large insurance company.
At the level of being a physician and a provider for patient care, there are times when you feel like if they could see a fraction, like maybe come to a grand round or walk the halls, to see exactly what you’re saying when you’re saying, “We can’t do this now.” In medicine, sometimes, our hands are tied behind our backs. Great perspective from your vantage point and expertise that can translate into any field as a financial officer in a company.
I would like to fangirl for a moment because I did see your picture with Jane Goodall. You’ve worked there for four years. It’s very unfortunate about her passing. She was a phenomenal force and one of those once-in-a-lifetime people that you meet. I can’t imagine somebody tuning in to our interview that doesn’t know who she is, but give us your overall gestalt of what she meant to you.
If I could be responsible for one more person reading to know more about Jane, that would be a highlight for me. She is someone that leaves her home in England in her twenties in the ‘60s, was only permitted to travel if her mother accompanied her, which she did, and had this lifelong dream of spending time with animals in Africa.
If any of you who are your readers have ever heard one of her talks, she’s famous for her talks and how she tells stories. She was inspired by Tarzan of the Apes. She has a joke about how he picked the wrong Jane. She was also inspired by Dr. Doolittle. She bonded so deeply with her childhood dogs. She would say that dogs are her favorite animal, not chimpanzees. That’s a little-known fact about her. Her mom was such a throughline to all of her storytelling. That hits home for me because that’s the role my mom plays in my life, too.
Vanne, her mom, was a throughline in all of her storytelling and also her deep commitment to the animals. She’ll say, “I never meant to be an activist. I never meant to even be a scientist. I wanted to be a storyteller,” but watching her chimpanzees that she was studying lose their environment and working with Louis Leakey with the Great Ape Trifecta with the other women focused on other great apes, her career guided her. She was an active participant in that. She stepped up to that. She became and will remain such an influence in this space.
One of my favorite things about Jane or Dr. Goodall, more formally, is the way she can influence any age range, the way children respond to her, and the way adults who experienced her boom in the ‘60s still feel connected to her. I appreciate that she has cultivated that. Our work at the Jane Goodall Institute is more important than ever. To keep her legacy alive and play our role to do that is more important than it’s ever been.
Thank you for sharing that. That’s beautiful. That’s a little insight and glimpse. I feel your feeling of how much of a privilege it was to be in her presence.
A true privilege. I’m so grateful I joined this organization when I did. I got four years with her. I almost see it as, “What’s four years after now?” Even having that experience. I don’t mean to sound selfish about it, but working under a founder who’s with us, whose ethos is guiding, to her relationships that are influential, to a strong executive director, and the rest of our network. Her grandkids are involved. We’re under such wonderful leaders. What does it look like? I can’t wait to see how we continue to succeed and grow.
That’s beautiful, meaningful work.
Rachel’s Message To Her Younger Self
Rachel, we’re going to shift gears a little bit. Thinking back to that young woman who was graduating from Pitt. If you could say 1 or 2 things to her, what would you say to her?
I would say not being the technically strongest accountant in the room is okay. Now, I see it as a gift and a privilege. I was surrounded by so many smart, talented people. I was competitive. I was used to being the best or the smartest in the room in certain rooms. Not all rooms. It was hard to get over my own ego sometimes, looking around and saying, “The way they were able to interpret that or handle that complicated situation, I couldn’t get there.” That daunted me in my early career, feeling like I was smart enough to get in the room, get the job, and be personable enough. I was almost like, “Should I be here? Did I personality my way to this job?” What I would like to tell myself is maybe a little bit, and guess what? That’s okay.
It is okay to no be the technically strongest accountant in the room. Share on XThat’s one of your superpowers.
I’ve come to realize that. I have the help of a wonderful leadership coach who helps me realize that, too. These things that feel like you’re less-than, I look back, and I wish I could tell myself, “Don’t worry. You’ll find why this is a superpower leader.”
Having A Reliable Partner And Trusted Leadership Coach
It sounds like what you’ve described as financial leadership can be frustrating, competitive, high-stakes, deadline-driven, and probably often invisible until something goes wrong. How do you protect your energy and take care of yourself? Walk us through some of your self-care non-negotiables.
It is one that feels real once you go from a cushy middle manager job where some are layers ahead of you, then you go to the one signing things, like signing the audit or signing the Form 990.
That’s your name on the paper.
It’s exposing. You feel vulnerable. I didn’t have anyone above me at the Institute to guide me. I had endless support from my executive director, but unnerving and a lot. What I would say is that I picked a stellar life partner. We got married three years ago. His name is Matt. I realized it could be cheesy, but that is part of my self-care.
We have two dogs and a cat at home who always pick the most inopportune times to bark and crawl everywhere. He has them sequestered in our basement. He’s like, “Don’t worry.” He had a coffee ready for me. I have been reflecting on it. It took me a while in life. I often felt behind on finding that person for me, but picking him intentionally for what makes a healthy life has helped me with self-care. I have a leadership coach and a therapist.
Rachel, I’m going to interrupt you for a moment. Can you go back to the leadership coach? How did you know that you needed one? What does that look like? Can you give us a little more granularity around a leadership coach?
I would love to shout out Anna, our executive director. It was controversial to do it in a nonprofit setting when every donor dollar counts. She was intentional about it and cost-mindful about it. She brought in an external firm to do some strategic leadership work with our senior leadership team. From what I know, over the years of the Jane Goodall Institute, which started in the ‘70s, not a common thing.
The same firm offered the coaching. She said to us as senior leaders, “I support you to do this. You’ll have to pay for it out of your budget.” For me, as a finance person, I’m like, “Thank you for that clarity.” She was like, “I support you, and I believe in this as an investment in our people.” That is leadership. That has changed me. She’s had to defend that decision, but our board has been so supportive of it. It has made us stronger as leaders, which makes us do better for the mission and the money.
I spend an hour a month with a coach. It’s cost-mindful. It’s not excessive, but it makes you think and talk about how you approach your work. The most influential thing I’ve learned is that we have a functional side to what we do, meaning me, finance, and accounting. I’m leading my team of accountants. I was brought in here to rebuild that team. I was so focused on that, but I also needed to think like an enterprise leader. The senior leadership team is also my team and arguably the most important team.
No money, no honey.
We’re a team. It’s easy to think in silos, like, “I’m a department head. I’m worried about my department,” to realize, look around our table where there are ten of us, which is what represents a senior leadership team at the Jane Goodall Institute, and say, “This is my team.” That has been transformative for me and maybe some others on the senior leadership team, too.
Those are great points. I don’t have a leadership coach. That sounds fabulous. I’ve had coaching in the health and wellness space outside of medicine and have a therapist. The way you have to look at it, if you’re having to pay for those things, is that it’s an investment in yourself. You invest in all these other things, and they sometimes bring you nothing. It’s an investment in yourself. Kudos to your leadership team and your leader who said, “This is something that I think will be of value to you.” Sometimes, we need somebody to tell us, “This was helpful to me. I think it’ll be helpful to you,” so you’re not thinking it’s woo-woo out there.
Not to be shy about being the person who shares that with your fellow senior leaders, and not to be shy about the fact that I’m one of the people who leaned into coaching. It’s like getting therapy, which, thank goodness, has become more normalized. You do or don’t have to share that, but sometimes, being the person who’s willing to share it and provide an authentic testimonial opens the door for other people to be like, “Not so taboo. Maybe I do need to lean into that. I’m missing out.” I found that to be helpful to be a little bit vulnerable about what you’re experiencing within your own leadership team, too.
Thank you so much. I appreciate everything you mentioned about your self-care. I’ve never considered my husband as part of my self-care team, but I have to say that I’m able to do the show because he is with my mom, who has been ill. I have to say that’s part of my self-care as well. It is something that I’m super grateful for. I love that shout-out to your husband.
Keeping The Fun Even In Professional Settings
I have another question. We want to get you out of here, but we’d love to talk about life outside the office. Yours sounds fascinating. You’re in Leesburg. You talk about wrangling your pets and hunting for thrift store treasures. That’s one of my daughter’s favorite things to do. How does that life, the slower pace, the finds, and the fur babies, feed the professional version of you?
It’s one and the same. I’m not sure if that’s the rise of working from home a lot more. I do have the pleasure of mostly working from our Leesburg, Virginia, residence. We loved it.
Did you move from the district or closer in?
I moved from Bowie, Maryland, which is on the other side of the district.
Mitchellville.
My husband bought a home out there before we met. We moved in there and got married that way. We moved to Leesburg because his career is more on the Virginia side of the area. Life outside for me is one and the same, it feels like. One of the reasons I love my role and the Jane Goodall Institute so much is that I have to turn myself on in the morning or off.
When I decide to do some work in the evening, it’s because I genuinely want to or because I have a great leader and ethos here. If I needed to go to physical therapy for self-care, or see my therapist, or hit that yard sale down the street for 30 minutes, as long as I’m still showing up, acting as a leader, getting my work done, and leading my team, I can do that.
Do you mean they trust you to get your work done?
It’s not about how online you are at what time, and them being like, “I noticed this.” I don’t want to say that’s where I came from, but a bit. A bit of it was how you are parked all day long to respond to things.
It’s probably 99% of professional life.
Being green on the team chat. How long? I tried to lead by letting go of that and saying, “As long as work is getting done and we’re communicating as a team, we’re getting there.” That has been such a gift here and something I couldn’t trade in the future, I don’t think. Also, that through line, to continue with the question, is animals. It’s the fact that I get to work for a mission that is so broad. It’s not the Jane Goodall Institute. It’s about a better planet and conserving our land, our youth, and everything.
It’s so rooted originally in chimpanzees and their habitat. I’ve gotten to hike with chimpanzees twice. That fuels me. I came back a better professional from it for JGI, Jane Goodall Institute, but I am so jazzed about that on a daily basis. I get to bring that, too. I got to help deliver food on the islands in the Republic of Congo to the chimpanzees we care for there.
I got to watch them come out to their caregivers and retrieve balls of rice and bananas. It’s a true wonder. You leave and say, “This exists?” To be able to be here, witnessing it. This isn’t a tour-guided program. This isn’t pay-to-play. I had to get here, and I have to go back and be a good accountant and finance leader, too.
I take a lot of pride in my home. It’s a pivot, but it’s a centering hobby for me. I love setting up the aesthetic that speaks to me. I don’t care about what looks best in a magazine or the layout of a floor plan. I love creating something cozy. To get there, I love thrifting and estate sales. It sounds a little corny, but it makes you open all the time to things being found that you didn’t think about.
It fuels that playful, fun side of me, which helps me lead with that to my people and my team to be playful and fun. Satisfying that side of myself outside of work keeps that at the forefront for me. I have a pretzel Jellycat bag charm hanging from my purse every day. As I walk around going to a board meeting or something, I don’t want to forget that life is fun. It’s okay to be a serious professional woman who likes to be playful. I’ve tried to recognize that.
Do not forget that life is fun. It is okay to be a serious professional who enjoys being playful. Share on XI can see why you and Sylvia had that connection right off. One of her favorite words is fun. She’s intentional. She reminds me when we’re in an environment and a moment, like, “Take it in. This is a happy moment,” and to say it out loud and appreciate that. Thank you so much, I appreciate it.
Community-Led Conservation At The Jane Goodall Institute
Rachel, I have one question. We probably should have asked this earlier in our conversation. Can you give us a thumbnail on how your work with the Jane Goodall Institute supports not only the chimpanzees, but equally as important, the people who live in those areas in the country? Can you talk about that? The focus is on the animals or the primates, which is important, but tell me about how JGI supports the people in the country.
I couldn’t quote you the year, but it’s not new. Jane and the Jane Goodall Institute were pioneers in the space called community-led conservation. It evolved into a little bit buzzwordy in the mission space, but JJI was at the forefront of it. I hope that if some of my colleagues are reading this, they’re like, “She’s right. We were.” What that means is that chimpanzees need trees to live in and eat from. Trees go away. Why is that? There are landslides because trees are taken down for farming land instead.
People are like, “I need to feed my family. I need to grow a crop.”
An example that the Jane Goodall Institute might help with is, first of all, never going into a village in these areas and saying, “This is what you must do. Listen to us.” There are pictures of my colleagues sitting on the ground with a map laid out with the whole village around them and saying, “If you planted coffee trees instead of corn, which coffee trees regenerate, last longer, provide more stable income, and take less land. You would have more trees that also conserve the landscape itself.”
Fewer trees don’t only mean fewer trees for chimpanzees. It means fewer trees to prevent the ground from mudslides and total degradation as well. Maps have been a huge part of our work with the people of the communities we work in. We are working alongside them, supporting them directly, and not just coming in and doing, or thinking we know the answer without them. That has been something I loved learning here at JGI. I’m so proud of the work that we do.
Awesome tidbit. Thank you.
As very Western Americans who live in cities and drive cars, is there one thing that we can do for the environment?
Reuse more. Jane was a marvel. The woman traveled most days of the year on airplanes. She had to do what she had to do to get places, but single-use plastics were a big thing that she wouldn’t touch. Use a mug and not a cup. Her ethos was that every little thing you do matters. She would say, “If you change one thing, it matters. If you have one good conversation with your neighbor or friend about that thing, they’ll matter, too.” Also, it is the businesses we patronize. We’re careful about that. We have a small online store at the Jane Goodall Institute. We hope to grow it. Being thoughtful about who we patronize and where things come from is also helpful. That’s how I try to change my behavior personally.
Every little thing you do matters. Share on XVote with your dollars. No single-use plastics, and we’re voting with our dollars.
You already set the example of thrifting. Something to be said there.
Episode Wrap-up And Closing Words
Rachel, this conversation has been such a gift. Thank you for pulling back the curtain on your journey and being so generous with your story.
Thank you so much. We’re not often asked to tell our own stories, so to be even asked to do this and be in the position to think about it and talk to you both is a gift for me, too.
Thank you so much. We learned so much. I had goosebumps many times during the conversation. You are truly the embodiment of what it looks like to lead with purpose. We know our readers are walking away inspired and ready to make their own leap from following the leaps that you’ve made.
Before we go, where can our audience find you online? Where should they connect with you or the Jane Goodall Institute to follow your work?
We have a wonderful website that’s redeploying at the Jane Goodall Institute in June 2026. Connect with us @JaneGoodallInst on Instagram. We have a great team behind our Instagram account. For me personally, I’m a LinkedIn girly. Go ahead if you’d like to connect with me there. I keep my Facebook and Instagram private. It’s mostly pet photos and my four-month-old niece, so you’re not missing much there.
I bet you’re the best auntie.
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We want all our audience to make sure you follow Rachel and show her some love. To our Boss Leap community, if this episode moved you, share it with a woman in your life who needs to read it. Leave us a review. Keep showing up for yourselves. If you subscribe to YouTube, we’d like to reach a larger audience and share these stories that are so invaluable.
Until next time. May you be well.
May you be well.
Important Links
- Rachel Strittmatter on LinkedIn
- @JaneGoodallInst on Instagram
- Jane Goodall Institute
- Tarzan of the Apes
- Boss Leap Podcast on YouTube
About Rachel Strittmatter
Rachel is a CPA and MBA-holder based in the Washington, D.C. area, currently serving as a finance leader at the Jane Goodall Institute, where she works at the intersection of conservation and mission-driven impact. She made a deliberate leap from the for-profit world into the nonprofit sector – and hasn’t looked back. With a background rooted in accounting and a passion for meaningful work, Rachel brings both sharp accounting expertise and a big-picture perspective to everything she does. Outside of the office, you’ll find her in Leesburg, Virginia, wrangling her pets and hunting for treasures at the thrift store.