Rowena joined the Royal Veterinary College as a PhD student in 2009, became a Postdoctoral Researcher in 2013, and was awarded a BBSRC Future Leader Fellowship in 2016. Rowena's background is in animal behaviour and welfare, having graduated from the University of Bristol in 2009 with a BSc (Hons) in Animal Behaviour and Welfare (1st Class). Her PhD, awarded in 2013, focused on inherited disorders related to extreme conformation in dogs, and was supervised by Dr Charlotte Burn and Dr Anke Hendricks. Following that, Rowena worked as a lecturer (maternity cover) on the MSc Animal Behaviour and Welfare course at Queens University Belfast. In 2014 she returned to RVC as a postdoctoral researcher investigating canine epilepsy and its behavioural comorbidities in RVC's canine epilepsy research group, led by Professor Holger Volk until 2017. Rowena plays an active part in the early career researcher community at RVC, having been on the executive committee of the Researcher Association since 2015 (2015-2016: Vice-President; 2016-2017: President, 2017-2018 Senior Vice President.

In her current role as a BBSRC Future Leader Fellow, Rowena is investigating idiopathic epilepsy, a complex chronic brain disorder that affects both humans and dogs. Although seizures may be the signature symptom of epilepsy, co-morbid neurodevelopmental disorders are commonly diagnosed in people with epilepsy including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which may indicate shared underlying pathophysiology.