Following his Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Saint Joseph's University, he assisted with insect and disease surveys for the USDA Forest Service.
[2] While conducting his PhD at Washington State, Raffa received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NFS) to support his research on bark beetles.
[5] As a result of his research, Raffa was promoted to the Beers-Bascom Professor of Conservation and was elected a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America.
[1] In 2010, he served as an associate/subject editor for three major North American journals by 2010[7] and received the Entomological Society of America Founders' Memorial Award.
[8] During his tenure at UWM, Raffa was praised by fellow entomology professor Susan Paskewitz for being the "preeminent forest entomologist in the world today."