Elizabeth A. Schultz is a Professor Emerita of English at the University of Kansas, having taught there from 1967 until her retirement in 2001. She is known internationally for her scholarship on Herman Melville and, in particular, his novel Moby-Dick, having published monographs, essays, and poetry, curated exhibitions, and given talks all centered around the work. In the later years of her career, and particularly following her retirement, Schultz delved into writing and publishing poetry in journals, reviews, and her own collections. She continues to publish today.

Schultz was born in 1933 in Flint, Michigan where she lived until she entered Wellesley College, receiving her BA in European History in 1958. She went on to teach high school- and junior college-level English in Osaka, Japan for three years before returning to the United States to complete her MA and PhD in English and American Literature at the University of Michigan in 1962 and 1967.

While at KU, Schultz taught classes on women in literature, American women authors, British women authors, African American literature, Langston Hughes, and Moby-Dick, amongst many other topics. Schultz also taught at various international universities, including in Japan, Africa, Russia, and China. She was the recipient of numerous awards during her time at KU, including the KU Outstanding Woman Teacher Award, the Standard Oil Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the HOPE Award, all in 1971 alone, as well as the Mortar Board Outstanding Educator Award in 1984. She was named a Danforth Associate from 1973-1976 and was granted a Chancellor's Club Teaching Professorship from 1984-1994. In 2007, six years after her retirement, she taught courses on American women writers and ecocriticism at Beijing Foreign Studies University as a Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer.

A lifelong lover of nature and the outdoors, Schultz established the Elizabeth Schultz Environmental Fund in 2005. The Fund seeks to award grants to projects that contribute to the preservation and understanding of nature, as well as resource conservation, particularly in Douglas County, Kansas. Since its establishment, it has awarded tens of thousands of dollars to projects led by several organizations, including the KU Endowment, the Spencer Museum of Art, the Kansas Land Trust, and the Lawrence Public Library Foundation.