Rachelle Ellison wears many hats and served as the Miriam’s Kitchen Advocacy Fellow in 2023. She shares that she first connected with Miriam’s Kitchen when she was experiencing homeless in Washington, D.C. many years ago. “They are an amazing organization that made me feel like I was human, that didn’t stereotype homelessness. Everyone was full of energy and hugs, and you could feel their passion and purpose,” she says. 

Rachelle is also a senior mentor advisor at the People for Fairness Coalition (PFFC), a speaker advocate for the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH), and a speaker for Friendship Place. She is an active advocate with The Way Home Campaign, a movement to end chronic homelessness in DC, and serves on the Community Voices Working Group for the Coalition on Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development (CNHED).  

“You’re blessed with so many gifts and talents. In order to keep them, they must be given away. I’m passionate about helping a person become the best version of themselves that they can be. And all they need is someone to say: I believe in you,” says Rachelle, light dancing in her eyes. “Because someone said, ‘I believe in you.’ I remember that to this day. They believed in me till I believed in myself.”