Koshland, Ellen

Ellen Koshland is the founder and president of the Education Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation that seeks to stimulate new thinking about public education in Australia and fund innovative student projects in government schools.

Ellen Koshland established the Education Foundation in 1989 to encourage community involvement in state schools that would contribute to a quality public education system and improve learning and life outcomes for young people. The Foundation works with other charitable foundations, businesses and individuals to fund programs that actively support students to develop their talents and foster a love of learning. The Foundation, under Ellen’s leadership, has raised more than $7 million to fund over 500 programs changing the lives of many thousands of state school students and teachers. It now operates on a national scale in all states of Australia.

Originally from the United States (a member of the Haas family, part of the larger Levi family), Ellen was inspired by her grandfather, who established the San Francisco Foundation. She married James McCaughey and moved to Australia in 1973. Already considering possibilities in philanthropy but unsure of how to begin, an approach by Jill Reichstein and a meeting with women from the Victorian Women’s Trust motivated Ellen to establish the Education Foundation.

Ellen Koshland is a graduate of Princeton University and an author of a children’s book and an historical chronicle. She serves as Deputy Chair of the Victorian Skills Innovation Commission, and a Director of Pilotlight, Australia. She was a judge for the Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction in 2006.

Newspaper Articles

• Green, Shane, 'Bid to help private schools go public', The Age, 25 July 2005. [ Details... ]

Online Resources

• Ellen Koshland's MAD Day Speech, 2002, http://www.rumad.org.au/EK_speech.html. [ Details... ]