Rachel Adams is 32, 5’5”, and has brown hair, and deep brown eyes.   She has a slender build, but she is not slight when it comes to strength or bearing.  She has been on staff at the Institute since she completed her residency in Neurology at Johns Hopkins.

When she was six, the NIMR held an Easter Egg Hunt for all the children in Santa Barbara. The Grand Prize was a Golden Egg, with scholarship money for the winner.  She was the eldest of four children of a single parent mother, who struggled to raise the children after her husband had deserted them.   At six, Rachel knew that they were poor, that they didn’t have the best of things, but she also knew that her mother worked very hard to give them what they did have.  The Institute Egg Hunt had been a dream for the little girl and her family.  The well kept grounds, the buildings, all the children laughing was a respite from the bleak world she lived in.  She had never had so much fun, or seen so much candy in her life and the different eggs had held so many wonderful surprises.

A red-haired boy had come over to her and given her his golden egg.  A tall dark haired man had seen it and called her over, and suddenly there were many people talking to her, and so many things began to happen.  The Egg was the Grand Prize, and she and her mom and family had met Admiral Nelson and so many people.  And in several days, her mother had a new job, working in the Secretarial Pool at the Institute.  Several months later, they moved to a nice house in a nice neighborhood and better schools.  Rachel was thrilled with the new school and began to work very hard at her studies.  She graduated from Santa Barbara High School, and then went on to California Polytechnic Institute for her degree in Biology, then to Johns Hopkins for her medical studies, where she specialized in Neurology.

All through her life, Harriman Nelson and the Nelson Institute had been there for her, and when the opportunity presented itself, she came back to California, the Institute, and the Nelsons.

Harriman Nelson was several years gone when Rachel arrived at the front gates, and she deeply regretted that she had never said ‘Thank You’ to him in person.  So she saw Karen, Sean, and Lee Crane, the tall man from long ago, and met the staff at the Med Center, and then began to repay all that she felt she had been given.

Her relationship with Sean Nelson is a serious one.  They have spoken of marriage, and are planning an engagement now that the Boat is finally being launched.  Rachel has become an integral member of the Med Bay staff, and is working on several projects to help bolster the reputation of the new facility.