Debbie Heath joined Rice University in 2013. In her current role as Director of Operations and Marketing for the Rice Office of STEM Engagement (R-STEM), she implements and manages the marketing and business operations for more than 22 continuing education and summer learning programs at Rice University that focus on building skills in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) for Pre-K through career individuals. Heath provides multi-level support for the executive team and teaching staff and manages program and community engagement activities with the overarching goal of enhancing the broader impacts of Rice University's research.

Prior to joining R-STEM, Heath led marketing and events for the Rice Ken Kennedy Institute, an interdisciplinary catalyst that fosters collaborative innovations to solve critical global challenges that advance computing and harness data. In this role, Heath led the institute's social media, events management, and marketing efforts for the annual Rice Oil and Gas High-Performance Computing Conference, Rice Data Science Conference, monthly faculty member luncheons, distinguished guest speaker events, and technology training for machine learning, and high-performance computing and scientific programming. She worked in the oil and gas industry for seven years as a tax information systems analyst for a major energy, commodities, and services company; and also served as the associate editor for ExxonMobil and managed contributions and community relations for their public affairs department.