She received her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Kansas and her B.A. summa cum laude from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. She has taught at the University of Kansas, the Kansas City Art Institute and Emporia State University.Dr. Elston’s primary teaching areas are medieval and Renaissance art and architecture, with a particular focus on late medieval Italy and the interaction between art and ritual.Dr. Elston’s dissertation, "Storing Sanctity: Sacristy Reliquary Cupboards in Late Medieval and Renaissance Italy", explored the storage of relics in fourteenth and fifteenth-century Italy and her current research focuses on the development of the sacristy as a vital ritual and decorative space in the history of the Western church.