Elise is proud to be a part of the OHSU Midwifery team. Currently she is mostly engaged in research but also works in the on-call rotation for the midwifery service. She started her midwifery journey as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan after attending births with midwives as a student nurse. Then in 2005, after completing her masters degree at the University of Illinois-Chicago, she has served families throughout their reproductive years ever since. She moved to Oregon in 2010, completed a PhD at OHSU in 2018, having two kids while doing her doctoral work. 

She is engaged in research on the physiology and pharmacology of oxytocin, postpartum hemorrhage and most recently has been funded by the National Institutes of Health to study the relationship between a person's birth related problems (hemorrhage, difficult labor, cesarean) and their epigenetic patterns. Elise also studies outcomes for people having midwifery care and the use of wearable biosensors for predicting when labor might start. She lives near Portland with her husband, two young children and dog. She enjoys being in the Pacific Northwest for all the natural beauty and recharges by getting lost on the trail.