Nachama Wilker is a seasoned non-profit professional, with over 20 years of experience as a leader specializing in legal services, disability, protection and advocacy, and other equal justice mission-driven organizations. Nachama is passionate about assisting organizations to utilize the opportunities presented during leadership transition, to do course corrections, and lay the groundwork for the next leader’s success. She has worked with organizations in crisis, organizations recovering from trauma, growing organizations, and those fighting to increase their impact.

Nachama most-recently served as Interim Executive Director of Disability Rights Washington (DRW) whose works advances the dignity, equality, and self-determination of people with disabilities. DRW works to pursue justice on matters related to human and legal rights. She also served as Interim Chief Operating Officer for the Washington Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, and as Interim Executive Director for Disability Law Colorado.

As founder of Thrive Partnerships, Nachama supports non-profit leaders to develop the tools and strategies they need to rise to the challenges of our times to create a more just and equitable society. Thrive provides executive leadership coaching and training to bring out the extraordinary leader in us all as well as leadership training and development. Prior to launching Thrive, Nachama spent 18 years as Deputy Executive Director for Training and Technical Assistance at the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN). NDRN is the national membership association of state Protection and Advocacy Agencies, the largest providers of legal services to people with disabilities in the United States. Nachama was also the Executive Director of the Council for Responsible Genetics, a national organization dedicated to advocating for socially-responsible development of genetic technologies by supporting an informed public dialogue on social and environmental impacts.

Nachama holds a BA from Hampshire College in Physics and Political Science. She has completed trainings as a Non-Profit Board Governance Consultant from BoardSource, Coaching Training for the Leadership Practices Inventory 360, and the Georgetown Leadership Academy for Cultural Competency.