She is a licensed landscape architect with degrees in architecture and landscape architecture from the University of Virginia. She is the principal of Elise Shelley Landscape Architect in Toronto. Her public projects include the new street design for downtown Belleville, a children’s garden for the Carmelite Day Nursery in Toronto, Kindergarten Playground designs for Ossington Old Orchard Public School and West Humber Junior School and consultant for the award-winning Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization Project with PLANT Architect, Inc.