Rachel Nelson received her B.A. in chemistry and mathematics from Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. At Juniata, she became involved in the campus ministry program and following graduation chose to pursue an M.Div. at Harvard Divinity School (HDS). While at HDS, she first encountered the wonders of early martyrdom literature and wrote her M.Div. thesis on the interplay between early acta martyrum and the baptismal liturgy. Following graduation, she served as Catholic campus minister at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.

In 2004, Rachel entered the concurrent Ph.D./S.T.L. program at Boston College. She completed the S.T.L. in 2011, writing on the use of motifs of the Roman spectacula in the Martyrdom of Polycarp. Her doctoral dissertation is on the motifs of the spectacula in second and third century acta martyrum. 

Since 2002, Rachel also worked for Constellation Center (a performing arts center in Cambridge, Massachusetts) researching the history of sacred music performance, liturgy, and church architecture. Her interests include martyrdom, the interplay between early Christianity and Greco-Roman culture, liturgical development, and early sacred music.