Rachel Yates, a Presbyterian ruling elder from Aurora, Colorado, recently accepted a position as a church support fund-raising associate with the Presbyterian Mission Agency.

Yates works with congregations in the western part of the United States, building awareness of and engagement with the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s mission and ministries. Her focus is on the World Mission ministry area, particularly efforts to secure funds for the sending and support of international mission personnel.

 Previously, she served for 23 years as an attorney with Holland & Hart LLP, a Rocky Mountain-based law firm with 15 offices across the Mountain West and in Washington, D. C.

In addition to her legal background, Yates brings significant congregational and presbytery involvement to her new role. She serves as a ruling elder and clerk of session at Calvary Presbyterian Church in Denver and co-chairs the congregation’s Faith in Action Team. She also fills the pulpit occasionally and regularly serves as a liturgist.

At the presbytery level, she is a member of the Presbytery of Denver Council and participates in its Mission and Ministries workgroup, a body that drafts the presbytery’s annual mission appeal, approves proposals for mission partnerships, and tracks mission giving against program budgets. She is also serving as a presbytery commissioner to the Synod of the Rocky Mountains.

Active community life, Yates has helped raise funds for Regis Jesuit High School and Colfax Community Network, an organization that advocates for and works on behalf of families residing in low-income, transient housing. She serves the Colorado Arts and Crafts Society as a director and board secretary and is on the Advisory Committee for Secure World Foundation, an international organization based in Colorado that promotes sustainable and peaceful uses of outer space.

Yates earned her law degree from Boston University and a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

The region served by Yates, which includes all states west of the Dakotas, is home to nearly 1,400 Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations. She joins three other church support fund-raising associates, Elizabeth Little in the East, Chris Roseland in the South, and Bruce Whearty in the Midwest.