Rate My Professor Rachel Houston

Dr. Rachel Houston serves as Associate Professor and Online Undergraduate Programs Director in the Department of Forensic Science at Sam Houston State University’s College of Criminal Justice. She holds a Ph.D. in Forensic Science from Sam Houston State University (2018), where her dissertation focused on developing a comprehensive genetic tool for identifying Cannabis sativa samples for forensic and intelligence purposes, and a B.S. in Biology, cum laude, from the University of Texas at Dallas (2013) with a minor in Criminology. Her professional journey at SHSU includes roles as Graduate Assistant (2014-2018), Assistant Professor (2018-2024), and promotion to Associate Professor in 2024. During her graduate studies, she also completed a Pathways Internship as a Physical Scientist with U.S. Customs and Border Protection Southwest Regional Science Center (2014-2015), working on drug cases and autosomal DNA profiling of marijuana samples.

Dr. Houston’s research centers on advancing forensic DNA analysis techniques for challenging samples, such as degraded skeletal remains, embalmed cadavers, and environmentally compromised tissues, as well as non-human DNA applications for individualizing plant materials like Cannabis sativa to differentiate marijuana from hemp, Papaver somniferum, and Kratom products. Notable publications include “An investigation of downstream processing methods for challenging skeletal samples” (Forensic Science International: Genetics, 2024), “Twenty-Eight Days Later: The Recovery of DNA from Human Remains Submerged in Aggressive Household Chemicals” (Journal of Forensic Sciences, 2024), “The development of two fast genotyping assays for the differentiation of hemp from marijuana” (Journal of Forensic Sciences, 2024), “Massively parallel sequencing of Cannabis sativa chloroplast hotspots for forensic typing” (Journal of Cannabis Research, 2022), and “Developmental and internal validation of a novel 13 loci STR multiplex for Cannabis sativa DNA profiling” (Legal Medicine, 2017). She has earned the 3 Minute Thesis People’s Choice Award from SHSU (2018) and the LTC Michael A. Lytle ’77 Academic Prize in Forensic Science Scholarship Fund (2015). Currently, she chairs the Graduate Standards and Admissions Committee, serves on the Institutional Review Board and Department Curriculum Committee, and is a member of the Professional Organization of Scientific Area Committees’ Wildlife Forensic Biology Subcommittee.