Elizabeth is an infectious disease epidemiologist whose research focuses primarily on infectious diseases in low- and middle-income countries. She is now expanding her work to include vector-borne diseases in rural areas of the United States, including Maine.

She directed a randomized evaluation in Ecuador that tested albendazole, an antiparasitic medication, as a treatment for people with neurocysticercosis, a parasitic infection of the brain. She also served as principal investigator on a study of why neurocysticercosis cysts develop and respond to treatment differently, even within the same person, and on a study of how neurocysticercosis and other neglected diseases could be studied in the United States.

Elizabeth has also conducted studies on the risk, prevention, testing, and treatment of HIV and sexually transmitted infections in Asia and Africa. She led three randomized evaluations in Kenya that assessed the effect of adding oral HIV self-testing as an option in a roadside clinic system serving truck drivers, sex workers, and people living in roadside communities.

She has published more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals and co-edited an introductory statistics textbook.