College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Fisheries and Wildlife

Background

Rachel is an aquatic toxicologist who studies the impacts of environmental contaminants in marine and freshwater ecosystems. Broadly, her research interests include contaminants of emerging concern, environmental physiology, global change biology, and ecological risk assessment. Rachel received her M.S. in Marine Biology from the College of Charleston where she studied the occurrence of microplastics in coastal South Carolina and the toxicity of microplastics to marine invertebrates. She then received her Ph.D. from the University of North Texas where she studied the impacts of crude oil exposure from oil spills on marine and freshwater fish.

Research

As a Research Associate in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State University, Rachel’s current research investigates the impacts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on native fish in the Great Lakes region. Overall, Rachel’s work uses both field and laboratory assessments to understand the mechanisms and impacts of contaminant exposure on aquatic organisms across multiple levels of biological organization, from molecular to whole-organism endpoints.