Alyssa Volland  grew up in Tinley Park, IL. Alyssa currently lives in Indianapolis working as a Senior Research Associate for Elanco. Alyssa studied pre-vet during her undergrad, and was convinced she was going to vet school. She almost applied then decided at the last minute that her heart wasn’t in it. Alyssa then decided to get a masters degree at the University of Illinois. She did research in microbiology with Dr. Ritalin on the 4th floor of the Animal Sciences Laboratory. Alyssa graduated in 2019 and started working at Elanco after graduation. While completing her Bachelor's degree at UIUC, Alyssa was involved in the Pre-Vet club, Sigma Alpha Professional sorority, Student Advancement Committee, and the Animal Science quadrathalon. Alysaa also worked in a diagnostic lab at the vet school. She loved to be busy and wanted to be involved in as much as possible. While at UIUC, Alyssa loved taking ANSC 100 and 103. She loved getting the opportunity to work with many different species of animals. 

While working at Elanco, Alyssa is one of the first people to work in bacteriology. She said that it has been really cool to start from the ground up. She works in discovery research and leads projects that start from day 0 to discover new treatments and therapies for animals. She roughly works 8 to 5 but these hours are not set in stone. Alyssa spends about 4-6 hours in the lab, but also attends lots of meetings throughout the day. This was a surprise to her when she started her job. Alyssa enjoys her job because she has a nice balance of working by herself and being a part of a team. She loves that she can work on projects that she has had her hands on since the beginning and see them to completion. She loves that she has had the chance to work on products that she may see hit the market in 2-5 years. Alyssa is loving her job and life in Indianapolis with her cat Oliver, who she says looks like Garfield.