Linda D. Elrod is the Richard S. Righter Distinguished Professor of Law Emerita and former director of the Children and Family Law Center at Washburn University School of Law. Linda retired in June 2024 after 50 years. She was the first woman to receive the William O. Douglas Outstanding Professor Award at Washburn Law School. in 1979. In 2015, Washburn University awarded her the A.

Roy Myers Excellence in Research award. In 2025, Linda became the first woman to receive the Kansas Supreme Court Justice Award for "individuals . who have contributed significantly to the improvement of justice in Kansas." The award was last given in 2014; Linda was the 18th recipient since it started in 1989.She has been a Supreme Court certified mediator since 1999, has served as an expert witness in divorce cases, has written amicus briefs in Kansas and U.S. Supreme Court cases, and has served as a consultant for lawyers and judges. She has been a member of the U.

S. Secretary of State Legal Adviser's Advisory Committee on Private International Law since 2009. She was an official observer for the International Society of Family Law at the Hague Conference on Private International Law's drafting of the Hague Convention on International Enforcement of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance in 2007. She served on the governor's and then the Kansas Supreme Court Child Support Advisory Committee from 1984 to 2016.