She was the first woman to head the botanical department of the Chilean National Museum of Natural History in 1947.

She continued working in the museum as an assistant to Francisco Fuentes Maturana, who was the head of the botanical department.

She was put in charge of organizing the herbarium started by Carlos Muñoz Pizarro.

[2] As curator of the National Herbarium, she established relationships with various researchers and botanical specialists around the world, such as Carl Skottsberg, Olga Borsini [es], Otto Solbrig, and Maevia Correa.

Species named after Acevedo include Escallonia rebecae by Eberhard Max Leopold Kausel [es],[3] and Placseptalia rebecae by Marcial Espinosa Bustos [es].