Renée Eriksen earned her Master’s degree in Biology from the University of Massachusetts Boston, and her Ph.D. in Plant Biology from the University of New Hampshire. From 2015 - 2018, she studied drought response in lettuce as a postdoctoral researcher with USDA-ARS in Salinas, California. She is currently serving as a Plant Research Geneticist postdoc for the USDA-ARS in Corvallis, Oregon studying drought and heat response in hops.