Rachel Andres

Rachel Andres is a humanitarian leader whose innovative Solar Cooker Project (SCP) of Jewish World Watch transformed the lives of over 100,000 Darfuri refugees in Chad. After witnessing how women and girls fleeing the Darfur genocide faced rape and violence while gathering firewood outside refugee camps, Andres built a national interfaith coalition that provided 50,000 solar cookers to five camps beginning in 2006. Working alongside the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Solar Cookers International, the Chadian government, and other partners, her landmark initiative reduced dangerous firewood-gathering trips by an astonishing 86% in the first camp evaluated. Beyond safety, the project created income opportunities for women to manufacture solar cookers, provided training programs, and fostered leadership roles within their communities, empowering refugees as they rebuilt their lives after genocide.

Prior to her groundbreaking humanitarian work, Andres was a nationally respected expert on destructive cults, serving for over a decade as Director of the Commission on Cults and Missionaries of the Los Angeles Jewish Federation and as Vice President of the only national organization supporting families and former cult members. She co-edited Cults and Consequences: The Definitive Handbook and brought critical attention to the pervasive threat cults pose to individuals and society. Andres has served as a consultant to numerous organizations including the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She currently serves on the Board of NewGround: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change, an organization that empowers Jewish and Muslim change-makers in America. Andres holds a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA.