Dr Rachel Knowles qualified in Medicine at Edinburgh University in 1991, undertook vocational training in General Practice and Community Paediatrics in Edinburgh and London in 1998, and completed her specialist training in Public Health Medicine in London in 2004. She obtained a Masters in Medical Anthropology (Brunel University) in 1998 and Masters in Public Health (LSHTM) in 2004.  Her PhD thesis, completed at UCL, modelled survival for a UK-wide cohort of children born with congenital heart defects.

Rachel represents UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health on the Governance Board of the British Paediatric Surveillance Unit (BPSU) and was formerly Senior Medical Adviser to the BPSU (2003-2016). She chairs the UCL FPHS Digital Strategy Committee.

Rachel is an Honorary Consultant at NHS England & Improvement (NHSE&I), where she is Clinical Advisor to the Newborn Blood Spot screening programme. She is Chair of the Antenatal and Newborn Screening Research Advisory Committee at NHSE&I and 

Rachel is employed part-time by the Medical Research Council (MRC) as Programme Manager for Clinical Research. She sits on the steering committees for Understanding Patient Data and the Global Forum for Bioethics in Research.

Since 2015, Rachel has been a member of the Confidentiality Advisory Group (CAG) which advises the Health Research Authority (HRA) and Secretary of State on Section 251 support. Prior to this, she was a member of the London-Bloomsbury Research Ethics Committee.