Before coming to the University of Kentucky, Rebecca began her journey working in health care in a small office in Providence, RI. As she continued her patient-based work, she became increasingly interested in population health and how to help people, not just one-on-one, but in larger communities through population-based research. She earned her Bachelor's in Anthropology and her Master of Public Health at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, where she also completed her epidemiology practicum at the Fairfax County Health Department. She served as an Applied Epidemiology Fellow through the CDC/CSTE at the Maternal and Child Health Bureau at the Ohio Department of Health where she researched substance use disorder, neonatal abstinence syndrome, and overdose patterns in maternal populations throughout the state of Ohio. 

Rebecca came to the University of Kentucky in 2021 and has been in her role as the Research Analyst Principal in the Tracking and Evaluation Core at the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences since 2022. There she focuses on evaluating the impact and translation of health research projects conducted by clinicians and investigators at the University of Kentucky. She is also a member of several national working groups. 

Rebecca began her Sociology Ph.D. program in 2024 and hopes to specialize in medical sociology and substance use disorders. Her research interests are how the within substance use communities' perception of 'outsiders' affect recovery efforts, and how institutionalization and incarceration interplay with substance use and recovery. She is also interested in marginalization, mental health, and translational science.