In 1998 Rebecca earned her Bachelor of Music degree in Music Theory and Composition, summa cum laude, from Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, New Jersey, where she studied composition with Drs. Stefan Young, Joel Phillips, and Ronald Hemmel, and piano with Mrs. Lillian Livingston. At Westminster she won both the hymntune competition and the graduating classes' anthem competition. In 2001 Rebecca completed her Master of Music degree in Music Composition from the University of Oregon School of Music in Eugene, Oregon, where she studied composition with Drs. Robert Kyr and David Crumb. At the University of Oregon she earned a Masters Fellowship in Music Research and Scholarly Activity, and was named Outstanding Graduate Student Composer 2000-2001. From 2002-2004 she was on the adjunct faculty at the University of Oregon School of Music, teaching composition, orchestration, and upper-level aural skills.

Two of Rebecca's orchestral works, Finding the Murray River and Sinfonia no. 1: Of Trees and Stars, won readings by the Women's Philharmonic in San Francisco (reading sessions in 1998 and 2001). In April 2002, one of her choral works, Let Him Return, received Top Honors in the Waging Peace Through Singing international choral composition competition. In 2004 she was commissioned to write a string trio piece, L'anniversaire, for the Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium. In 2004 she also received a commission prize to write a multi-lingual, multi-faith choral work, Reciprocity, for the Foundation for Universal Sacred Music. Most recently, IndieAcoustic selected track 10, Periwinkle Blue, on her October Wind CD as one of their "Songs of Note 2005."

Enjoying great variety in her musical output, Rebecca wrote and produced the music for two CD-ROM strategy games, Heroes in the Time of the Three Kingdoms (I and II) by OdinSoft Co., Ltd. (Taiwan, 1997 and 1998), and the soundtrack for the videodocumentary series A History of the University of Oregon (2001, 2007).