Eliza Kellas

Eliza Kellas (October 4, 1864-April 10, 1943) was an American educator most known as former principal of Emma Willard School and co-founder of Russell Sage College.

Eliza Kellas was born on October 4, 1864 near Moores Forks in Franklin County, New York. She attended school in Mooers and Malone and began teaching at Malone in 1880 at the age of 16.

In 1887 Kellas began studies at Potsdam Normal School (now known as State University of New York at Potsdam) in Potsdam, New York. She graduated two years later and joined the faculty to teach in the Preparatory Department. Kellas left Potsdam in 1891 to accept a position as Principal of the School of Practice at Plattsburgh Normal School (now known as State University of New York at Plattsburgh) in Plattsburgh, New York. In 1895 she was named Preceptress (equivalent to Dean of Students). In the late 1890s Kellas studied briefly at University of Michigan and Sorbonne in Paris.

Kellas resigned from Plattsburgh after 10 years to become a governess to fellow a fellow pioneer in women's education in America, Mary Lyon. Kellas and Lyon traveled widely together between 1901 and 1905, when she entered Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She graduated from Radcliffe in 1910.

In February 1911 Eliza Kellas took the position of headmistress at Emma Willard School in Troy, New York, at the recommendation of Agnes Irwin, the recently retired Dean of Radcliffe College. Emma Willard had just moved to a new campus, the gift of Margaret Olivia Sage. The school's standards and reputation had veered from its founder’s original vision and Kellas was charged with restoring those high standards of scholarship and deportment. Kellas worked tirelessly toward these goals, stressing science education for women. She also raised enough alumnae funds to construct several new buildings on campus. Within a few years she helped make the Emma Willard one of the leading institutions of its kind in the country.

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