Rachael Eubanks: Michigan’s First Woman Treasurer
Hanging in a high-ceilinged hallway close to Lansing’s Capitol Building, are rows of imposing black and white portraits. Beginning with Michigan’s first state treasurer, Henry Howard (1836–1839), forty-six of the portraits in the “Hall of Treasurers” are male. Number forty-seven is not.
Rachael Eubanks was appointed as Michigan’s 47th State Treasurer by Governor Gretchen Whitmer in January of 2019 — the first female in 188 years of Michigan statehood.
Now serving in her seventh year guiding Michigan’s tax money and financial programs, Treasurer Eubanks reflects on what brought her to this place in history and what it means to both have a seat at the table and her portrait on the wall…
Dream Job
It wasn’t always about numbers. As a young woman, Rachael Eubanks was interested in science, engineering and mathematics, but always thought she’d be a medical doctor. After a visit to a cadaver laboratory ended in a near-fainting experience, she revisited her career choices. Discovering economics soon after, she realized it held the magic ‘human’ equation: economics married math to people, and economics married to public policy could enact change.
Graduating from University of Michigan with a degree in economics and an interest in bonds, Rachael began working right away in public finance. Serving in the private sector for 13 years at an investment banking firm mostly doing financial advisory work, she developed detailed knowledge of the bond issuance process for public entities. Her tenure at the firm overlapped Michigan’s Great Recession; the devastating economic crisis spanning 2007–2009 required all of Rachael’s creativity and innovation while offering her an unprecedented, hands-on education from worst-case economic scenarios.
Eubanks worked closely with Michigan’s governmental officials, doing bond issuance at the state level beginning with Treasurer Robert Kleine. Collaborating with Treasurers Kevin Clinton and Nick Khouri on the LED street light project for the City of Detroit during the city’s bankruptcy proceedings brought Rachael to the attention of Governor Rick Snyder, who in 2016 appointed her to serve on the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC). Rachael’s MPSC role as a utility regulatory commissioner gave her oversight on energy legislation that continues to guide Michigan’s utility infrastructure today. Her work caught the eyes of the transition team when Governor Gretchen Whitmer took office in 2019.
“I like to say Governor Whitmer brought me home and gave me my dream job here at Treasury,” Rachael says.
In reality, Rachael’s journey to her dream job as state treasurer began long before she even knew what ‘taxes’ meant. Eubanks refers with gratitude to the generational ‘scaffolding’ erected by her family of smart, strong women that was waiting to support her own success. The inherited mentorship of her mother and her great-aunt (a code-breaker in WW II) has been a determining factor in Rachael reaching a pinnacle for women in finance.
“My mom, Sarah Eubanks, worked for Treasury in the area that’s now the Bureau of State and Authority Finance,” Rachael explains. “She ended up as the executive director of the Michigan Municipal Bond Authority in 1989. I get the benefit of all the things that she learned in her career along with the professional networks she created, which were well-established by the time I graduated.”
Recognizing the fact that women didn’t have a lot of opportunities in the finance field at the time, and believing women tend to learn better collectively, Sarah Eubanks co-founded organizations for women that fostered relationships, offered educational opportunities and provided career visibility. Sarah initially set up Women in Public Finance in Chicago in 1997, followed by its sister, Michigan Women in Finance in 2002.
“I got to watch her do the whole thing,” marvels Rachael. “I had a fantastic behind the scenes perspective. When I’m asked about my mentors, it’s always my mom. She was right in front of me, doing some pretty groundbreaking and trailblazing things for women — things that eventually benefitted my own career.”
“We’re not just taxes”
As head of a complex, multifaceted financial organization dedicated to serving Michigan’s taxpayers, Rachael’s career revolves around people management. In order to provide a high level of responsible customer service to the public, she regularly meets with leaders throughout the department to ensure that Treasury’s many functions are operating smoothly. Her management includes running checkpoints and goal setting with senior staff, while personally working on key initiatives that reflect her own expertise.
Unlike many other states in the nation with relatively small treasury departments, Michigan’s Treasury is a large employer with a lot of diverse financial responsibilities. It’s a consolidated entity, where all of the state’s financial functions exist and are implemented. There are over 1300 employees in the department, with the biggest component being revenue and tax generation.
“We’re not just taxes!” comments Rachael. “In addition to our primary tax function, we’re responsible for multiple programs that provide services to taxpayers and local governments.” She quickly names a list of areas that fall under her watch as duties of the Michigan Department of Treasury:
- Coordinates payments through the state’s banking relationships
- Invests retirement funds on behalf of schoolteachers and other public retirees
- Handles 529 college savings plans through MET and MESP, plus a disability savings program through MiABLE
- Serves as the state’s point of contact for Wall Street and the rating agencies
- Facilitates bond issuance
- Oversees Unclaimed Property (the state’s ‘Lost & Found’)
- Has jurisdiction over state and local units of governments’ financial health and stability
- Offers residents access to a personalized financial plan at no-cost through the MI Money Matters program
“I also represent the department in front of external entities.” Rachael adds. “That can be meeting with other state departments, presenting to taxpayer groups, or talking with interested stakeholders across Michigan who do business with the department.
“Twice a year, in partnership with the fiscal agencies, I serve as a voting principal for the state’s Consensus Revenue Economic Conference (CREC), which we refer to as the ‘Super Bowl’ for economic and revenue forecasters. The conferences reveal the state’s economic forecasts for the upcoming two fiscal years, translating them into expectations for major tax types — which then become the foundation for the state budget process.”
Sharing expertise beyond Michigan, Rachael currently serves as the senior vice president of the National Association of State Treasurers (NAST) which is based in Washington DC. She will lead NAST as president in 2026, representing all of the 50 states’ treasuries.
Unlike Rachael who is an appointee, most of her treasurer counterparts throughout the country are elected and are involved in statewide elections. However, partisan labels are set aside at NAST where focus on advocacy, work fundamentals and service delivery to residents transcend changing politics. Her collaborative role at the national level benefits Michigan with leading edge information on legislation, researched- and data-based financial policies, and pooled solutions for treasury service improvements.
For Sadie
Her NAST election to office is a respectful nod to Rachael’s leadership within state government, and a reflection on how she has chosen to continue the example of her mentor-mother. If there are no role models, there are fewer dreams of possibility, and as a mom of a toddler daughter Rachael is hopeful that her role may point to greater opportunities for all women in non-traditional fields.
“I want Sadie to be able to have options,” she says. “The barriers have evolved; they are less concrete perhaps, but they are still out there and my daughter will have to navigate them. I hope that she will have fewer barriers than I had, like I had less than my mom encountered, and I hope Sadie can accomplish whatever she wants without people thinking, “Can she do it? She’s a woman. We’ve never had a woman in that position before.”
Meeting with Michigan Treasury and talking to ratings agencies in the early years of her public finance career, Rachael was often the only woman in the executive conference room. She derives satisfaction from making that same conference room less homogenous and views the transition as a part of the trajectory of her career.
Leading Treasury
As a subject matter expert herself, Eubanks looks for talented employees to help move the organization forward. As department head, she builds relationships with talented individuals, hires expertise she feels will thrive within a partnership — and then mostly gets out of their way.
“Treasury is a very fast moving organization,” Rachael explains. “We’re responsive, and we can make decisions quickly. I think a lot of that is because of the structure that we have: we put great people in positions and empower them to make decisions, then have their back if things don’t go to plan.”
COVID-19 was the epitome of things not going to plan, and yet Eubanks and her team managed to pull some wins from the enormous challenges the virus presented to Treasury’s functions and workforce. With few choices, Treasury employees flipped an in-person, paper-heavy tax process to a remote, online environment virtually overnight.
“It was a tremendously difficult period of time, and it was also an experience that produced my biggest growth as a manager and leader,” Rachael reflects. “It wasn’t an option not to process taxes, yet we had to take care of our people. I still can’t believe that we did it! We came out on the other side stronger, for sure, and I think we’re a better organization now.”
Figuring out how to maintain and protect the integrity of the Michigan Department of Treasury shadowed Rachael’s planning during the pandemic. Her perspective encompassed the role of Treasury beyond her own term, recognizing that as number forty-seven she was and is a temporary steward of an institution that she respects deeply. As a leader, Eubanks must operate in a way that creates balance, nourishes innovation and strengthens the future.
Treasurer Eubanks didn’t set out to be the ‘first woman’ to do anything; she set out to do good work. Looking back, she recalls attending a board meeting in Lansing’s Austin Building when she worked as an advisor. Gazing for the first time at the all-male portraits of Michigan’s treasurers hanging on the wall, she remembers thinking, some woman needs to break that barrier down.
Rachael smiles. “I actually never thought it would be me.” ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>> LISTEN to Treasurer Rachael Eubanks, host of Treasury Talk PODCAST
>> WATCH Treasurer Eubanks, Sarah Eubanks and MWIF’s Tamara Flake discuss the legacy of Michigan Women in Finance and Women in Public Finance and the importance of networking and support systems
