Rachel Fine

Rachel Fine joined the Schwarzman Center at Yale University as executive director in October 2022 following her role as executive director and CEO of the Los Angeles-based Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts (2015-2022).

Rachel joined The Wallis in its first 18 months of operation, following the center’s 19-year capital campaign and building project to convert the historic Beverly Hills Post Office into a vibrant cultural hub and performing arts campus for Southern California. During her tenure, she established The Wallis as a major player and leading cultural organization in Los Angeles’ burgeoning arts scene; demonstrated unwavering dedication to diversity, equity, inclusion and access; built dynamic artistic partnerships and projects between The Wallis and Los Angeles’ cultural organizations; launched and implemented a $55 million campaign, which more than doubled the organization’s endowment and established a healthy cash reserve in the campaign’s first year; and steered and managed The Wallis successfully through the pandemic.

Also a concert pianist, Rachel attended the Music Academy of the West as a student of Jerome Lowenthal and Eastman School of Music as a student of Anton Nel. She is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine, from which she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and recently received the Distinguished Alumna Award from UCI’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts. Other educational pursuits led her to Yale, where she studied musicology, and The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., where she was an arts management fellow. Prior to her tenure at The Wallis, Rachel was executive director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (2010-2015) and Los Angeles Children’s Chorus (2007-2010). Additionally, Rachel has held leadership positions at the DeVos Institute of Arts Management, Aspen Music Festival, Santa Fe Opera, and The Juilliard School.

Rachel is happily married to Christopher Hawthorne, a writer who has served as the Chief Design Officer for the City of Los Angeles and architecture critic for the Los Angeles Times. Christopher is Senior Critic at the Yale School of Architecture, with a secondary appointment in English. Rachel and Christopher have two daughters.