Rachael Nava

Executive Vice President — Chief Operating Officer

RACHAEL NAVA has been the University of California’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer since 2015. In this capacity, she serves as a strategic and operational partner to UC’s 10 campuses, 6 academic health centers and 3 affiliated national labs. UC is a $56B enterprise that serves more than 300,000 students and employs over 265,000 faculty and staff.

Ms. Nava oversees the UC Operations division at the Office of the President, which is comprised of over1,000 staff with responsibility for Systemwide Human Resources, Information Technology Services, Shared Services, Strategy and Program Management, Systemwide Community Safety, Inclusive Excellence, and all financial and business services within the Office of the President. From November 2017 through April 2020, she concurrently served as Chief of Staff to President Emerita Janet Napolitano.

Prior to joining UC, she worked in the healthcare sector and was the Chief Operating Officer for a $1B public non-profit Medicaid health plan. She also operated federally qualified health centers and designed and directed a privately funded health insurance program for low-income children. Early in her career, she worked in the biotechnology sector in the area of cancer and AIDS research. Ms. Nava is a third generation UC alumna and a graduate of UC Santa Cruz.