Elizabeth Primas was born in Washington, DC and attended DC Public Schools, before going on to the District of Columbia Teachers’ College, Trinity College, and George Washington University, where she received a Doctorate Degree in Education and an Educational Specialist Degree in Literacy. She worked in DCPS for thirty-three years, teaching and coaching teachers in effective strategies for teaching reading to all children. During her tenure with DCPS, she took a leave of absents to work with the Educational Testing Service (ETS), where she served as the Teacher-in-Resident to develop the National Board Certification for Elementary and Middle School Reading and English Language Arts Teachers. She returned to DCPS as the Director of Literacy. A position she held until she retired.

The retirement turned out to be very brief. Within six days, Dr. Primas was recruited by the Rowland Reading Foundation to work with teachers nationally on best practices to teach who had historically been underserved.  Dr. Primas currently works with the National Newspaper Publishers Association as the Program Manager on a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant to increase public awareness of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) through a multi-media campaign.