[14][15] From an early age, Ronald spent time backpacking in the Sierra Nevada wilderness, sparking her love for plant biology.

[3] Ronald realized that analyzing and studying plants could be a profession after witnessing botanists in the field during a summer time hike with her brother.

[15] As a graduate student at UC Berkeley, she began to study plant-bacterial interactions in the laboratory of Brian Staskawicz, working with peppers and tomatoes.

[25] The Ronald laboratory studies the innate immune response, using the host organism rice and the agriculturally important pathogen Xanthomonas oryzae pv.

[35] For their discoveries of the fly and mice receptors, Jules Hoffman and Bruce Beutler received the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (jointly with Ralph Steinman), indicating the importance of such research.

[41][42] The error was discovered when new laboratory members Rory Pruitt and Benjamin Schwessinger[43] were unable to replicate previous results.

[45] Retraction watch, a website that shines light on problems with papers and educates and celebrates research ethics and good practices stated, "that this was a case of scientists doing the right thing".

[42] As part of a story about the importance of setting the record straight, in 2014, Nature magazine also covered the Ronald retraction.

Ronald reports that she was amazed not only by the perseverance and loyalty of her team, but also by the community support that she received during this difficult time.

[47] In 2015, Ronald published the discovery of the predicted ligand of XA21, a sulfated peptide called RaxX, correcting their mistake and bringing the research team full circle.

Working with law professor John Barton, Ronald tried to establish a benefit-sharing model for the source countries of genetically important plant varieties.

[52] This work revealed an important mechanism with which plants control tolerance to abiotic stress and set the stage for in-depth molecular-genetic analyses of Sub1A-mediated processes with her collaborator Julia Bailey-Serres, who joined the project in 2003.

[53][54][55] Mackill's team at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) generated and released several Sub1A varieties (developed through marker-assisted breeding) in seven countries including India, Indonesia and Bangladesh, where submergence destroys four million tons of rice each year, enough to feed 30 million people.

[58][59][60] Ronald co-authored the book Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics and the Future of Food with her husband, Raoul Adamchak.

[62] Bill Gates calls the book "a fantastic piece of work" and "important for anyone that wants to learn about the science of seeds and challenges faced by farmers.

In 2024, Ronald participated in The Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center Residency, where she developed strategies to optimize carbon transfer from plants to soil mineral-microbial complexes.

In 2019, she received the American Society of Plant Biologists Leadership Award and an honorary doctorate from the Swedish Agricultural University.