Haylie graduated from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Plant Biotechnology and Innovation management with first class honours in 2022. Before joining QUT, she worked as a research assistant at the University of Queensland on projects related to sorghum grain quality as well as digital learning uplift project with the Institute for Technology and Learning Innovation (UQ) and a tutor in biotechnology. During her honours project, Haylie worked on genetic modification, transcriptomics and proteomics in sorghum bicolour for improvement of grain digestibility. Haylie has been a co-author on papers relating to the use of epigenetics as a guide for crop improvement and an e-book chapter on bioinformatic processing of epigenomic data. Haylie is currently employed as a Research Assistant in the Banana Biotechnology Program within the Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy on a project aimed at engineering Cavendish banana plants with resistance to Fusarium wilt Tropical Race 4, where she is conducting high volume genetic screening.