Elizabeth Roberts completed her DVM at the University of California, Davis in 2005, and a Master of Public Health with a concentration in infectious disease from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in 2006. She began practicing shelter medicine in 2007 in a variety of animal shelters in Northern California. Her practice spanned working as an associate veterinarian, to building a new medical program at a municipal animal shelter, to directing a shelter medicine department. In between her shelter work, she practiced as a public health veterinarian at the county and state level, in infectious disease, emergency preparedness and public safety research and education. Her time working in public health included a fellowship with the California Epidemiologic Investigation Service with the California's Department of Public Health's Veterinary Public Health Section. 

She joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison Shelter Medicine Program in 2019 as a shelter medicine resident, gained board certification in 2023 and then continued as an Outreach Veterinarian at UW through 2024. As both a resident and Outreach Veterinarian, Dr. Roberts lead and supported shelter consultations, including infectious disease outbreaks, operational evaluation and improvement, executive and board leadership development, and facility design. Currently, she works at the national level as a shelter medicine consultant and works with Shelter-Vet-On-the-Go as a traveling veterinarian.