Rachael is Professor of Health and Anthropology and was previously Director of the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for Health Research. Rachael also leads the Qualitative Research Network in Bristol's NIHR-supported Biomedical Research Centre. Until February 2022 she was a member of the University's Ethics of Research Committee.

In her own research, Rachael is a Social Anthropologist by background who applies techniques from anthropology and qualitative approaches in applied health research. Rachael works within strongly interdisciplinary teams, which includes those delivering research in the UK and in partnerships and global contexts. Interests include long-term painful conditions, implementation science, technology for health, clinical decision-making and public involvement in research.

Among the grants on which Rachael has been a principal or co-applicant include those from the UK’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the Wellcome Trust, Versus Arthritis, the Medical Research Council (MRC), and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Rachael’s PhD (1999, Edinburgh) and MA (1991, St Andrews) were both in Social Anthropology. She is currently a Trustee and Council member of the Royal Anthropological Institute and a Trustee of the Bristol Collegiate Research Society. She was previously Networks Officer of the Association of the Social Anthropologists; Treasurer and a Trustee of the European Association of Social Anthropologists; and a member of the Development Board for Equality and Diversity in Science (EDIS). Rachael is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and was formerly external examiner for Durham University's MSc in Medical Anthropology. She provides supervision to research students and delivers training in research methods and writing. Rachael also peer-reviews funding applications and serves on funding panels, including as panel co-chair of the 2024 UK Metascience Unit's metascience research grants and chair of interview panels for the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships in 2025.

Previously, Rachael's group achieved a University Engagement Award for their work in patient involvement in research, and a special prize for their animated film about patient engagement in the NIHR's New Media competition. She led a team within the SPHERE Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration into a finalist position in Health and Wellbeing category of the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Involvement's Engage Competition. In 2016 Rachael was given the British Pain Society Medal. Rachael led the STAR Programme of Research, a national programme to improve treatment for long-term pain after knee replacement, which has recently published findings indicating that the new STAR care pathway is clinically meaningful and cost-effective. She also leads and collaborates in multidisciplinary projects and streams of research including those using mixed methods and ethnographic approaches and with national and international partnerships. 

Rachael's University education was in Scotland, she spent her childhood in Saddleworth in North West England, spent some of her teenage years in Ireland, and has lived in South West England since 1999.

Rachael is co-chair of the UK Committee on Research Integrity. The Committee on Research Integrity is a free-standing committee, established following a recommendation by the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee in 2018.