Rachel L. Fink

Managing Director - Send Message

Rachel L. Fink is honored to return home to Northeast Ohio and lead Cleveland Play House during its 110th anniversary season. A proud graduate of Cleveland Heights High School and Case Western Reserve University, she discovered her passion for arts access, social justice, and inclusive leadership through formative Cleveland arts experiences — and an early internship at Cleveland Play House. She later earned her MFA in Theater Management from the Yale School of Drama (now the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale) and has spent over two decades guiding cultural institutions across the country.Fink spent 16 years at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where she founded and led the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre, building it into a nationally recognized hub for education and community engagement. She went on to serve as Managing Director of Theatre Bay Area, supporting over 300 organizations and 2,000 artists across the San Francisco Bay Area.She later led Chicago’s Tony Award-winning Lookingglass Theatre Company through the unprecedented disruptions of the COVID-19 era, guiding key operational and mission-aligned adaptations during a time of field-wide uncertainty.At Cleveland Play House, Fink has championed operational stabilization, community partnerships, and a revitalized internal culture while co-leading strategic and artistic planning alongside Artistic Director Michael Barakiva. She serves on the boards of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and CreativeOhio, and is a member of the Leadership Cleveland Class of 2026.A recognized field leader, she has co-led the Professional Association of Chicago Theatres, held fellowships with theAspen Institute, British Council, and University of Chicago, and was a member of artEquity’s national facilitator cohort — reflecting a career grounded in both local impact and national leadership.