She received her Ph.D. and M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and completed her B.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Science at Tennessee Technological University. Dr. Eldridge's teaching and research interests center on environmental anthropology and she has ethnographic fieldwork experience in Appalachia, West Africa, and Central America. Specifically, her research focuses on political ecological concerns, socio-ecological violence, and the intersections of development and disasters.