Rachel is a Senior Lecturer in Interior, Architectural and Spatial Design (IASD) and teaches on both the BA (Hons) Interior Design and MA IASD programmes. In 2013 she qualified with a PgCert in Academic Practice and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

She has been a visiting lecturer at Hochshule fur Technik Stuttgart, Sculoa Universitaria Professionael della Svizzera Lugano and Istanbul Technical University, as part of an international Interior Architecture programme. She also taught Fashion Interiors for 2 years at Shanghai College of Fashion as part of the University of Edinburgh/Donghua University joint partnership.

Rachel has been external examiner for the following programmes; BA Hons Interior Design at Glasgow Caledonian University, MA Interior and Spatial Design at University of the Arts London, Chelsea School of Art, and the BA Interior Architecture at University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury. She was also the international moderator for Greenside Design College, Johannesburg and an Independent Academic Validator for the University of Sussex. 

Rachel is a trustee of Interior Educators, the national academic organisation representing Interiors programmes throughout the UK.  

Rachel's research focuses on the studios and practice of Nordic modernist architects, in particular the influences between Finnish and Scottish architects in this period. She has undertaken short research residencies at the Alvar Aalto Foundation in Helsinki to investigate links between the Aalto’s and Scotland. Her work has been presented and published as part of the Alvar Aalto Researchers Network, European Architectural Historians Network and IDEA Journal. 

She was one of the committee who established and ran the 2025 Interior Educators Conference at the University of Edinburgh. Its focus on Imagining Interiors, considered how the interior could be re-imagined through various lenses. Rachel’s work around archive imagery considers the narrative and process of interiors as captured on film and canvas. Her wider research around workplace design was included in the book Interior Futures, published by Crucible. 

Rachel is currently a part-time doctoral student at the University of Westminster, focusing on the exhibition designs of the Aalto atelier. Her work considers the impact of photography within this field of the practice. She also seeks to ensure that in relation to the atelier, the involvement of the architects Aino and Elissa Aalto, Alvar Aalto’s wives and co-directors, is properly recognised.