Diantha Eloise Gray

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Diantha Eloise Gray (June 22, 1799 - July 28, 1880) who was eminent as a teacher, poet, and as an advocate for woman suffrage. She was educated at Troy Female Seminary, now known as The Emma Willard School in Troy, New York. She first taught at what she called the Wadawannuck Female Seminary in Stonington, Connecticut. In the spring of 1837 she went to LeRoy, New York, where she founded LeRoy Female Seminary. She returned to LeRoy in 1852 and the name of the Seminary was changed to Ingham Collegiate Institute and again in 1857 to Ingham University (1837–1892), the first University for women in U.S. (Rev. Samuel D. Burchard was the chancellor of the University). The University was named after its benefactor, Mrs. Emily E. Ingham Staunton, a former student of Diantha's at the Wadawannuck Female Seminary.

Diantha and her husband, Rev. Dr. Harvey A. Sackett, Yale College 1838, were instrumental in the founding of Elmira College in Elmira, New York. She was also a founder of New York Medical College and Hospital for Women as well as serving on its Board of Trustees. In 1867, the college graduated the first female physician in Canada, Emily Stowe. Three years later in 1870, Susan McKinney Stewart graduated as the first African-American female physician in New York State. This College merged, in 1918, with the New York Medical College.