Rachel is the Director of Biotechnology at Cobb-Vantress, the world’s largest chicken broiler breeding company. She leads a team of talented scientists toward integrating genomic tools in the Cobb breeding program to improve the performance of broiler breeding stock. Rachel completed her Ph.D. at the University of Melbourne, Department of Veterinary Sciences, Centre for Animal Biotechnology, and then her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Minnesota where she developed molecular tools for use in gene mapping and variation detection in the pig, sheep and wallaby. Rachel then joined CSIRO Livestock Industries, where she was involved in dissecting the genetics of reproduction traits in beef cattle and production traits in dairy cattle with both the Beef and Dairy CRCs. Since joining Cobb, Rachel and her team have identified DNA variations causing unwanted phenotypes in chickens, and have integrated genome selection into the breeding program for the purpose of accelerating the selection of superior genetic stock to meet new and existing market demands for poultry.