Elyse Ford was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and raised in Mesa, Arizona. Following high school graduation, Elyse joined the United States Army as a Veterinary Food Inspector where she served on active duty from 2004-2008. During this time she met and married her husband, Stephen. Elyse obtained her Associates of Arts from Pierce Community College, WA prior to transferring to the University of Georgia where she earned her BS in Animal Science with an emphasis in production. During her undergraduate career at UGA, Elyse served as a farmhand at UGA’s Beef and Sheep Unit and was president of Sigma Alpha, a professional agricultural sorority.
In August 2012 Elyse began her MS program at the University of Georgia under both Dr. Stelzleni and Dr. Lawton Stewart, focusing on meat science and beef cattle nutrition, respectively. Elyse’s thesis research project focuses on the effects of specific forages on animal production and meat quality attributes in grass-finished beef. The forages to be evaluated are pearl millet, pearl millet plus crabgrass, brown midrib (BMR) sorghum sudangrass and sorghum sudangrass. Meat quality characteristics to be evaluated are shelf life, oxidation, fatty acid profiles, color, sensory evaluation, proximate analysis and sliced shear force/tenderness. Additionally, serial ultrasound measurements of REA, 12th rib back fat, percent IMF and rump fat will be collected every 28 days at the time of weighing. After graduation Elyse was employed by Farmland-Smithfield. Currently, Elyse has moved back to the southeast and is employed as a Meat Technologist for SealedAir Corporation.