Prior to joining Riverkeeper, Roback was the Associate Director of the Water UCI Center at University of California, Irvine and Environmental Health Science Faculty at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Her academic work is focused on characterizing sources of pollution, determining environmental health effects, and developing remediation strategies for a variety of water contaminants, particularly contaminants of emerging concern.

Roback has also worked at and with a number of local, state and federal water agencies and tribes assisting with the improvement of water treatment technologies, expansion of monitoring programs, development of new analytical methods for the measurement of water contaminants, creation of platforms for data sharing and analysis, determining and adapting to the effects of climate change on water systems, engaging under-resourced and under-represented communities, and public outreach and education.

When she is not studying water systems, she likes swimming in them. She is a surfer and paddle-boarder and is passionate about protecting our waterways to ensure that they are safe and healthy for recreation, for the many species that inhabit them and as a source of drinking water.

Roback has M.S. and PhD. degrees in Environmental Health Science and Environmental Science and Engineering from University of California, Los Angeles and teaches in the Citizen Science Program at Bard College.