Her primary areas of research interest include sustainability; buyer-supplier relationships; services purchasing and supply chain management; offshoring and outsourcing; and supply chain cost management. She has published in numerous top journals spanning a variety of disciplines, including Journal of Supply Chain Management, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Operations Management, California Management Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, and other managerial and academic outlets. She has presented her work on five continents and in more than 30 countries.

Lisa is also the recipient of numerous research grants, including grants from CSCMP, ISM, CAPS Research and NSF. She aims to provide managerial contributions along with scholarly research findings in her work. She was the Co-Editor in Chief for the Journal of Supply Chain Management for nine years, through 2016. She is currently Senior Associate Editor at the Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management. She has co-authored six textbooks, the most recent being Logistics Management: Enhancing Competitiveness and Customer Value, published by myeducator.com.

Prior to joining Miami University, Dr. Ellram was the Allen Professor of Business Administration and Chairperson of the Management Department at Colorado State University, and the John and Barbara Bebbling Professor of Business in the Department of Supply Chain Management at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.