Elisa holds a B.S. in biology, with minors in chemistry and philosophy, from the University of Portland and an M.A. in philosophy from Georgetown University. During her undergraduate studies, she worked as a research intern and research assistant, at the Oregon Health and Science University’s Biomedical Engineering department. There, she worked on drug development for heart attack and stroke treatments with Aronora, Inc., and developed ELISAs for the capture of mutant thrombins in whole blood samples. During her two years of working in lab science, her interests pivoted from biomedical research to biomedical ethics. Following graduation, she interned at the department of Biomedical Ethics and Humanities at the University of Virginia, working with Lois Shepherd and Mary Faith Marshall, and began her graduate studies in the Fall of 2018. She has coached the University of Portland Bioethics and Ethics Bowl teams, coached the Georgetown University Bioethics Bowl team, and interned with the MedStar Hospital Center clinical ethics consultation team. In the Spring of 2020, she was a Georgetown University Medical Humanities Research Fellow, and researched the history of anti-Asian racism and its prevalence during the COVID pandemic. In the Fall of 2021, she collaborated with the Bombshelltoe Arts Collective, working as an illustrator to tell the stories of women working in nuclear security and the impact that COVID had on their personal and professional lives. She has also worked at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal as a Book Review Editor and Assistant Managing Editor.