Her work is highlighted at Legacy.com, and she blogs regularly for The HuffPost – GPS for the Soul.

Introduced to the ethical will in the mid–1990s, Rachael was inspired to transform the ancient tradition to empower contemporaries to preserve their voices and values for future generations. She developed a teaching model 'legacy circles' to guide adult learners.

The most recent of Rachael’s six books – published fall, 2013, for men, women, and families is Your Legacy Matters. She is also the author of Women's Lives, Women's Legacies, The Legacy Workbook for the Busy Woman, and My Financial Legacy (a monograph). She trains, certifies, and leads a guild of legacy facilitators in North America.

Rachael is a pioneer in the field of family-centered care in life-threatening and chronic illness. She founded the first Minnesota hospital-based program for families of the dying in 1973 at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Minneapolis. She created “Heartmates” to provide emotional-spiritual recovery resources and services for families of heart patients. She wrote and produced the Hugo Award-winning video-series, Portrait of the Heartmate. She is the author of Heartmates: a guide for the recovery of the partner and family of the heart patient, revised and reprinted in 2012, the 25th Anniversary Edition, and The Heartmates Journal: a companion for partners of people with heart disease.

Recipient of numerous awards for her work, Rachael was honored in 2000 with a grant at Norcroft, A Writing Retreat for Women. She has read for more than 18 years as a volunteer for the Minnesota State Services for the Blind. Newly retired as Chair of Adult Learning at Temple Israel in Minneapolis, she founded and chairs the Temple Israel Legacy Project, collecting and preserving congregants’ stories. She taught English, served in the Peace Corps in Tunisia, and practiced psychotherapy for thirty years.