Rebecca Onie

Who is Rebecca Onie?

Rebecca Onie is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Health Leads.

In 1996, during her sophomore year at Harvard College, Rebecca Onie founded Health Leads with Dr. Barry Zuckerman, Chair of Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center. As Executive Director of Health Leads, Rebecca oversaw the organization's growth to Providence and New York City.

After attending Harvard Law School, where she served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review and research assistant for Professors Laurence Tribe and Lani Guinier, Rebecca clerked for the Honorable Diane P. Wood of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She was also an associate at Miner, Barnhill & Galland P.C., a boutique law firm in Chicago, where she represented civil rights plaintiffs, health centers, affordable housing developers, and nonprofits.

During this time, Rebecca served as founding Co-Chair of Health Leads' Board of Directors. She returned to Health Leads as CEO in February 2006.

In 2009, she was honored to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, for “individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction.” Most recently, O! Magazine named her to its 2010 Power List of twenty women who are “changing the world for the better.”