Elise is passionate about restructuring humanitarian aid and fighting against border regimes.

She grew up in Indianapolis and completed her BA from Vassar College with double majors in international studies and French. While at Vassar, Elise founded Conversations Unbound, a non-profit organisation that provides displaced people with the opportunity to work as language tutors. Elise joined Ground Truth Solutions (GTS), an NGO that helps crisis-affected people influence humanitarian aid, designing quantitative and qualitative research to collect aid recipients' perceptions of aid and advocate for national-level reforms. She also designed and oversaw GTS' first-ever study of children's perceptions of aid and advocated for reforms in line with what children wanted. She authored GTS' first global analysis, Listening Is Not Enough, and pushed for global-level aid policy reforms.

Beyond the humanitarian policy world, Elise is an avid ballet dancer, having previously danced professionally.