Rachel Pufall, MSE
Assistant Director of Peer Tutoring
Rachel was born and spent 40 years living all over Wisconsin. In 2022 her family made the decision to relocate to Berea, KY so her partner could become the head baseball coach at Berea College. Before joining the Transformative Learning team Rachel spent almost 20 years in 4K-12 education as an elementary, middle, and high school counselor, statewide coach, and social and emotional learning specialist. She is excited to take the leap into the higher education world to support students, staff, and faculty.
Prior job/experience that shaped her: While studying psychology at Ripon College, Rachel worked in an after-school program with children in kindergarten through 5th grade. She loved the work, and knew she was not interested in being a classroom teacher. In her senior year she took a psychobiology course where she had to do a number of psychosocial assessments with volunteers. She enjoyed the time spent building relationships with participants, but did not enjoy writing up the assessment reports. This helped her decide to pursue school counseling rather than school psychology.
How she describes herself: Educator, Changemaker, Deep Listener, Collaborative Problem-Solver, Mother, Partner, Auntie
What she enjoys doing outside of work: Spending time with her partner and kids, reading young adult fiction and educational research, daydreaming of ways to make the world a better place for all beings.
A goal in life: Create learning spaces where everyone that interacts within them thrives.
Fun fact: Rachel is an RYT-200 certified yoga instructor and a certified Yoga Calm Youth Instructor.