Rachel is an Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She serves as the Faculty Fellow in the Office of Community Engagement. She has more than a decade of experience facilitating community-engaged learning. In 2020, she started the Coralville Media Collaborative to support classroom learning and internship initiatives with local nonprofit and civic partners. She is also an investigator on an Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development Grant to develop interdisciplinary narrative research in the Midwest. Before joining the University of Iowa, Rachel worked as a health and science writer and editor for a variety of national organizations and publications.