Karissa Laffey is a native Texan and natural born artist who enjoys expressing her love and appreciation for the natural environment through her drawings and paintings. She creates the majority of her work using watercolor, gouache, and acrylic paints. Karissa is largely inspired by the beauty she experiences in nature. Her work utilizes vibrant colors, which amplify the striking features of the natural environment. Her vision is to draw people in using rich colors and inspire them to share her delight and curiosity for nature. This is Karissa's first project as a children's book illustrator. She is the daughter of the author, Melanie Miller, and looks forward to many years of creating with her mother. Karissa graduated from Texas A&M University in 2015 with a degree in marine biology.

Presently, she is employed as a high school science teacher at Pasadena ISD in Texas.