After 14 years of working in the export industry (including as a management assistant in Switzerland and as a branch manager in Belgium), Elke Renner studied German language and literature and elective subjects at the Paris Lodron University in Salzburg. Her main areas of study were German as a foreign language and medieval studies, and she worked as a German trainer at various private institutes in Austria and abroad.
She worked for the study abroad programs of American universities (AIFS, Bowling Green State University, St. John's/St. Benedict's) and at the language center of the University of Salzburg and was also an examiner for the Austrian language diploma at the former ÖSD examination center of the University of Salzburg. From 2002 to 2022 she was a lecturer for German as a foreign language at the Department of German Studies at the University of Salzburg. Elke Renner has been teaching at the Mozarteum University since 2016 and as part of the International Summer Academy of the Mozarteum since 2012. She is also a Highly Sensitive Person Trainer and Shinrin Yoku Instructor.