Originally from California, Rhiannon earned her bachelor's degree and master's degree at the University of California, Santa Cruz in Earth Sciences, with a focus on Coastal Geology. Her thesis work centered on creating a dynamic sea level rise inundation model for the Hawaiian island of Kauai. She then went on to earn her doctorate in Coastal Geography in Australia at the University of Melbourne, with her thesis research focusing on how hard rock coasts evolve over multiple eustatic sea level changes. Rhiannon's research interests include using GIS and remote sensing techniques combined with field work to monitor and model coastal geomorphology over short- and long-term changes in the environment.

Rhiannon joined CCPO as a Virginia Sea Grant Coastal Resilience Outreach Coordinator in August 2019. She now works on bridging the gap between researchers and communities across coastal Virginia regarding climate change and coastal resilience issues. She is currently working on a collaborative project known as The RAFT (Resilience Adaptation Feasibility Tool) that assesses localities' resilience to coastal hazards and provides a year of assistance in implementing strategies to improve their resilience.