Elyse joined the Siler Lab in Spring 2015 as an undergraduate researcher. Since her graduation form OU in Spring 2016, she has continued working with the Siler Lab as a research technician and a teaching assistant for Field Herpetology. She first got interested with wildlife when she was young. As a child, she was always outside catching animals such as turtles and snakes from the pond in her neighborhood and kept them as pets for a week before releasing them back. Her fascination with wildlife was realized after taking Dr. Siler’s herpetology course. During her time as a research technician she was involved in a range of projects both locally and abroad. She surveyed for amphibian infectious disease throughout Oklahoma and spent time in the Philippines investigating squamate functional morphology and development. These questions lead to the interest in conservation in tropical climates. Now enrolled as a master’s student, Elyse plans to study spatial ecology and conservation of the freshwater turtle, the Hicatee (Dermatemys mawii), in Belize for her master’s thesis.