Rachel is a Science Team Leader at AgResearch, a New Zealand Government research institute focused on enhancing the agricultural sector. She leads the Food Function & Physiology Team, which studies how food ingredients influence human physiology. Previously, she served as Programme Leader for the "Dairy Products for Smarter Lives" programme, a five-year multi-organisational initiative aimed at understanding how dairy foods and probiotics can modify the gut-brain axis and, subsequently, behaviour and cognition.