Jelisa Peterson was born in Ogden, Utah in 1969. Her desire to take pictures at her first summer camp led her to ask for a camera at seven years old. But her real passion for photography was ignited when she moved to Zimbabwe to work as a volunteer intern 1993-1995, as Information Officer for their largest indigenous women's organization. Degrees in Anthropology and Women's Studies also inform Jelisa's approach to photography. She focuses her work on environmental portraiture, primarily of children. The countries she works in most are in East Africa. She feels most at home in Mozambique. Jelisa has worked and lived in Argentina, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Over the past twenty-four years, she has spent more than twelve of them in Africa. Although she has traveled extensively to thirteen countries Eastern and Southern Africa, she has also made images in Central and South America. Her love of adventure and meeting new friends has led her on many solo backpacking trips. She travels as the local people do on minibuses, trucks, boats and even by motorcycle.