Elaine Wood serves as Of Counsel at Meltzer Hellrung, where she designs and directs complex investment and employment-based immigration petitions, including EB-1, EB-2 NIW, EB-5, E-1, E-2, O-1, and L-1 categories. Her leadership is defined by her experience serving as Chief Legal Officer at multiple firms, where she scaled and directed comprehensive immigration legal operations throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Beyond her corporate practice, Elaine is the Founder and Director of the Hadaya Foundation, where she champions legal aid initiatives for underserved communities, bridging humanitarian advocacy with her professional expertise to resolve multifaceted cross-border issues. A World Bank Group-recognized expert in violence against women, she holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law, and an LL.M. from UCLA School of Law. She is licensed to practice in Washington, D.C. and Alabama, and her work is featured in outlets such as Inc. Magazine, CBS, and the AILA Law Journal.