Dr. Elif Isbell is an Assistant Professor at the University of California Merced, Department of Psychological Sciences. She is the director of the Isbell Development, Experiences, and Achievement (I.D.E.A.) Research Group.

She completed her Ph.D. in Psychology (cognitive neuroscience) in the Department of Psychology at the University of Oregon (mentors: Helen Neville, Edward Vogel, Edward Awh).

She worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oregon (mentor: Nash Unsworth), and then in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (mentors: Susan Calkins, Esther Leerkes).

She was a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) T32 Postdoctoral Fellow in Developmental Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan (mentors: Frederick J. Morrison, Pamela Davis-Kean and William Gehring).