Renae L. Sieck grew up outside of Crete, Nebraska, as the fifth-generation in her family cow-calf operation. Through her undergraduate studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Renae was highly involved in extracurricular activities related to agriculture. She was a state FFA officer, member of the livestock judging team, and a member of and later coach of the meats judging team. As a graduate student, Renae has earned several honors including the UNL Office of Graduate Studies Dean’s Fellowship, UNL Agricultural Research Division Widaman Distinguished Graduate Fellowship Award, and the Nebraska Cattleman’s Foundation Beef State Scholarship. Renae’s work as a graduate student is exemplified by her success in a “side project” focused on a novel facial deformity in Hereford cattle. For this project, Renae led analyses and the publication that described a de novo mutation resulting in this lethal craniofacial malformation. Her primary MS studies have focused on the refinement of cell culture assays to study changes in mitochondrial function due to stimulation with beta adrenergic agonists and analyses of the skeletal muscle transcriptome in cattle under heat stress and supplemented with a beta agonist. These studies are helping build a more complete picture of how these treatments alter the health and productivity of the animal. As a team player, Renae also mentors an undergraduate INBRE scholar and has served as a TA for our undergraduate Animal Breeding and Genetics course.