Attorney Janelle Elrod is originally from Cuba, New York and moved to Cary, North Carolina in 1996 where she graduated from Cary High School in 2000. As an avid runner, she was part of a state championship cross-country team which led to her participation as a scholarship athlete at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. Here she completed her BS in Communications/Advertising, with a minor in Marketing. She interned as an advertising associate in Atlanta during her final year of undergrad, and after graduation she worked for a year as marketing manager for a small Cary company before deciding to attend law school.
While at Appalachian State, she also worked for the school newspaper, The Appalachian, selling advertising space to local businesses and writing the Entertainment section of the paper. She graduated at the top of the Department of Communications Advertising program in 2004.

Attorney Elrod attended North Carolina Central University School Of Law, earning her Juris Doctorate in 2008. During law school she worked for Interact of Wake County as the Evening Crisis Line Coordinator for victims of domestic violence, as well as informed clients of how to fill out domestic violence protective orders. She also interned at Horn and Vosburg, PLLC in Durham, assisting Attorney Ann Marie Vosburg with family law cases in the Wake, Durham, and Orange County areas. She also participated in the Family Law Clinic at NCCU in which she worked with clients at Legal Aid in Durham, assisting with absolute divorces and child custody issues. She was also a member of the Public Interest Law Organization (PILO), and created and co-chaired "Central Races" a running group which helped to raise money for non-paid summer interns who were also members of PILO. She also participated in the Alternative Dispute Resolution Clinic, working with mediation clients at the Wake County Courthouse.
Attorney Elrod is a member of the NC State Bar, the 10th Judicial District Bar Association, Wake County Bar Association and the North Carolina Bar Association.