Rachael trained as a primary school teacher in St. Patrick’s College Drumcondra and completed a Master of Arts in Music before studying Music Education in the Kodály Institute of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, Kecskemét, Hungary. Rachael is currently on the board of the Kodály Society of Ireland

Since returning from Hungary in 2016, she has continued working in primary education and trained with the National Induction Programme for Teachers (NIPT) in mentoring newly qualified teachers as they complete the Droichead programme. An advocate for professional learning, Rachael is on the board of the Irish branch of the International Professional Development Association (IPDA-Ireland). She has facilitated workshops, TeachMeets, Twitter SlowChats, Professional learning communities and stand-alone seminars to support primary school teachers and educators across the education sector in the areas of music education, philosophy in education, and creativity in education among a range of other areas.

At third level, Rachael has worked to support students with dissertation writing and research methods and is presently leading the BA (Hons) Dissertation Module in St. Nicholas Montessori College.

Rachael’s ongoing doctoral study in Arts, Creativity and Imagination in Education, in DCU, Institute of Education has explored a play-based approach to music education for primary schools. She has presented her research at a number of national and international conferences including The International Society for Music Education Conference, Azerbaijan (2018), FÉILTE, NUIG (2019), and The International Professional Development Association (IPDA) Conference, Birmingham (2019).