Full Biography
Rebecca MacTaggart has spent most of her career doing one thing: showing up for people who need help and then figuring out how to get it for them.
Today, she works at Community Living and Support Services (CLASS), where she serves as a Community Engagement Specialist. In that role, she is a state-certified person-centered counselor, helping individuals with disabilities maintain their independence in housing, transportation, and daily life. She is also a state-credentialed Certified Investigator in Pennsylvania's Department of Human Services system, handling cases of abuse, neglect, financial exploitation, and rights violations.
In 2016, Rebecca's son was paralyzed by a spinal cord injury just before his sophomore year of high school. What followed was a years-long effort to help him regain his independence, navigate a complicated healthcare system, and prepare for college. He graduated with his classmates and was able to live independently in State College, PA for his undergraduate work. He is now pursuing a PhD as a researcher at the University of Michigan, where he is working to advance the understanding of space and solar physics.
That experience changed the direction of Rebecca's career. She had already spent more than a decade focused on helping students find their confidence and creative thinking skills in the performing arts. This also included work as a student support paraprofessional helping students in life skills, autism support, and emotional support programs and implementing Individualized Education Plans.
Her son's injury gave her new perspective on our society’s systems for people with disabilities, not just in the services themselves, but in connecting people to those services in the first place. She and her husband had the financial freedom for her to take a break from the workforce to ensure her son’s independence. She knew she was lucky - and felt somewhat guilty. Not everyone has the ability to do what she had done. So she committed to career to closing the gaps.
Rebecca focused in on health, providing one-on-one mentorship to children and young adults with disabilities and working alongside their teachers, parents, counselors, and medical teams. She then joined the United Spinal Association's national office, first as Government Relations Coordinator and then as Government Relations Manager, investing time in advocacy efforts in Harrisburg and Washington, DC.
Closer to home, Rebecca has served as Board Vice President and Chapter Advocacy Coordinator for the United Spinal Association of Pittsburgh since 2019. She sits on the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry's Accessibility Advisory Board and the Kessler Foundation Caregiver Advisory Council. She serves as an Ambassador for the Pennsylvania Human Rights Commission and on the Board of Directors for the Parent Education and Advocacy Leadership (PEAL) Center. She volunteers as an accessibility advisor for the Montour Trail, an active volunteer for the Westland Branch and with Friends of the Riverfront.
Rebecca holds a B.A. from Point Park University. She is a certified ADA Coordinator, certified in CPR and First Aid, and a registered Mandated Reporter.
She and her husband have been married since 2002 and have lived in South Strabane Township for 20 years. They raised their two children from kindergarten through graduation in the Trinity School District. Rebecca comes from a union family. Her father raised five children as a union steamfitter, her uncle a union electrician, and Rebecca herself is a past member of PSEA from her time working in public schools.
In 2025, Rebecca was nominated for the South West Regional Chamber of Commerce Woman of the Year.
