Rachel graduated from Reed College in 2015 with a Bachelors in Biology, where she focused on genetics and population biology. Before joining the Stevens Lab, she spent two years as a Research Assistant at Oregon Health & Science University in the lab of Dr. Susan Hayflick, where she studied the basis of several rare genetic neurodegenerative disorders known as Neurodegeneration with Brain Iron Accumulation (NBIA). In 2018, Rachel joined the Stevens Lab at the Broad Institute, as part of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, where she is now working to analyze human post-mortem brain samples from patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. She is excited to learn about the genetic and molecular changes that happen in the brain over the course of development. She hopes that by studying these mechanisms and how they may go awry, we will discover possible avenues for treatments to help affected patient populations.