Featured Work

I help individuals and organizations tell their stories, weaving their visions for social change into strong messaging and beautiful designs. My offerings include website design, visual branding, project strategy, narrative content development, creative strategy, and custom graphics.

Additional examples of my work (including toolkits, reports, brand kits, and websites) are available upon request.

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Youth Public History Institute

The Youth Public History Institute (YPHI) was a program conceived by Mariame Kaba, founder of Project NIA and co-founder of Interrupting Criminalization, that took place in July 2023 in New York City. The institute invited 16-24-year olds interested in prisons, policing, surveillance, research, and social justice to collaborate on creating a walking tour. I designed the archival website and the program curriculum.

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Proximate Strategies Consulting

Proximate Strategies Consulting is a unique, visionary consultancy passionately dedicated to empowering formerly incarcerated professionals. Their mission is to revolutionize how society invests in formerly incarcerated professionals. Their commitment is to transform the narrative—proving that investing in people is not just a societal obligation, but a powerful opportunity for growth and innovation. I designed the consulting firm’s website.

Visit the website.

Unapologetically HERS

Unapologetically HERS, Healing Experiences through Research Solutions (UAHERS) is a purpose-driven organization focused on improving knowledge-based opportunities and capacity-building efforts in California women’s prisons. It was co-founded in 2020 by formerly incarcerated women, who responded to the urgent needs of incarcerated peers during the COVID-19 pandemic. With a deep commitment to prison abolition and criminal justice, UAHERS has been a powerful force for change, using research, evaluation, and experiential knowledge to elevate the voices, lived experiences, preferences, and choices of imprisoned people. I designed the UAHERS website, and three program reports.

Read the impact report.

Texas After Violence Project

Texas After Violence Project is a public memory archive that fosters deeper understandings of the impacts of state violence. TAVP’s mission is to help build power with directly impacted communities, centering their dignity, agency, and expertise to cultivate restorative and transformative justice. I worked with the TAVP team to develop a visual brand that included new logos and a vibrant color palette, refreshed the program website, and designed the program impact report.

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Michelle Daniel Jones

Michelle Daniel Jones is a scholar, artist, and community organizer. I collaborated with Michelle and built her a custom website with vibrant graphics that she could regularly update with her current work.

Read the summary report.

Stevie Wilson DIY Youth Arts Residency

In collaboration with Project NIA, I created the Stevie Wilson DIY Youth Arts Residency to support young artists who have been formerly incarcerated or criminalized. I designed program applications, led a selection committee of formerly incarcerated community artists, and granted funds for self-directed artist residencies.

About Rachael Zafer

Rachael Zafer (she/her) has worked with organizations and grassroots groups committed to social change for over 17 years. She has collaborated and conspired with community organizers, spiritual leaders, artists, and writers across the country to inspire reflection, dialogue, and action. She is deeply committed to collective liberation, mutual aid, and abolition of the death penalty and the carceral state.

Rachael was the founding director of the Prison Education Program at New York University and was a co-founder of the Prison Arts Initiative at the University of Denver. She is a founding core member of Mourning Our Losses, a crowd-sourced memorial honoring the lives of people who died of COVID-19 while incarcerated in the United States. She has led hundreds of workshops and classes in prisons and jails in New York, Chicago, Michigan, and Colorado.

Rachael holds a Masters in Public Administration degree from New York University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. She is a trained yoga and meditation instructor, an experienced facilitator and public speaker, and a board member of the Ministry Against the Death Penalty, led by Sister Helen Prejean.

Rachael Zafer

Featured Work

Youth Public History Institute

Proximate Strategies Consulting

Unapologetically HERS

Texas After Violence Project

Michelle Daniel Jones

Stevie Wilson DIY Youth Arts Residency

Rachael Zafer

I offer comprehensive curriculum development for authors, organizations, and groups interested in:

Deep reflection on social and racial justice

Group discussion and exploration of identity, experience, and accountability

Resources oriented towards concrete action

You want to make the world a better place and I want to help you. As your thought partner, I can help you align your values with your momentum using tools like:

Theory of Change development and dynamic impact metrics

Analysis and design of your internal processes for impact and flow

Creative brainstorming to generate fresh ideas and thoughtful solutions

I utilize contemplative, restorative practices to support reflection, creativity, and collaboration. I offer several trauma-informed modalities that can be integrated into meetings, retreats, and courses or explored in workshops or individual sessions, including:

Meditation and mindful breathing for increased clarity and focus

Restorative yoga to support spaciousness in mind and body

Sound healing to promote relaxation and ease

I offer a full suite of communications support for organizations, coalitions, start-ups, and individuals, including:

Visual and narrative brand development, creation of high-resolution graphics, user-friendly websites, and style guides

Writing and editing short and long-form bodies of work including website and print copy, press releases, and annual reports

Communications plans to help you reach different audiences, grow your social media presence, and increase your impact

Whether you’re launching a new project or re-building something that exists, I can help you develop a map that centers discovery and growth with:

A strong mission, vision, and set of values to illuminate your work

Policies that center equity and antiracist action

Intuitive and flexible systems that support your goals

Rachael lives with her partner Mateen, cats Bodhi and Lakshmi, and dog Raji in Ann Arbor, Michigan.