Elisabeth M. Ammon completed her undergraduate studies in Tuebingen, Germany, and received her Ph.D. at the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1995. Her dissertation research addressed questions about nest site selection and nest success of montane riparian songbirds. After her graduate work, she completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) on riparian bird communities of the Carson Range, Nevada.

For the past four years, she was a research assistant professor at the Department of Biology at UNR. During this time, she worked on avian and amphibian habitat restoration planning, conservation planning for sensitive birds and other vertebrates, and on designing monitoring protocols for wildlife conservation. She brings her strong interest in conservation and applied avian ecology to her current task: bringing partner agencies and the Nevada birding community together to implement an all-bird, statewide monitoring program. This project is a natural extension of GBBO's recently completed Nevada Breeding Bird Atlas project.