Rachel is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Applied Climate Sciences at the University of Southern Queensland working with the Northern Australia Climate Program (NACP), and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Australian National University Fenner School of the Environment & Society. Prior to this, Rachel completed her PhD at the Fenner School, investigating the large-scale climate processes that drive extreme fire weather. Before this, she also worked as a climate change adaptation and mitigation consultant.

Rachel's current research is aimed at developing relevant thermal stress index thresholds to help the northern cattle grazing industry better manage drought and climate risks, and using climate model projections to investigate how these may evolve in the future. Rachel's main work has centred on the skill of hindcasts and forecasts in ACCESS-S2, ACCESS-G3 and ACCESS-GE for thermal stress indices. Currently, she is looking into two significant cattle chill event case studies in northern Australia.  Rachel enjoys working with Professor Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatick and her research group, and looks forward to opportunities as a Fenner Affiliate to collaborate with her and her students on novel and exciting research projects.