Elizabeth Schrader Polczer

In 2022, Schrader presented the Carpenter Program Women’s History Month Lecture at Vanderbilt University, and she has made academic presentations at the Duke Divinity School and other universities.

A 2017 article in The Oregonian noted that despite her recent involvement biblical scholarship, Schrader's songs still "...focus on secular themes of love and loss, desire and real-life events, both serious and light-hearted."

Schrader's involvement with religious scholarship began after a long and successful career as a singer-songwriter. In 2010 she launched a fan-funded campaign to record her album Magdalene. The album's title track led to Schrader doing research into Mary Magdalene in the Gospel of John, to two master's degrees in theology from General Theological Seminary, and to her current doctoral studies in Early Christianity and New Testament at Duke University. She currently resides in Durham, North Carolina.

After Schrader went solo, she was a featured artist on MySpace in early 2006 and appeared in the Gilmore Girls episode Partings later that year.

Schrader grew up in Portland, Oregon and moved to California to attend Pomona College, from which she graduated in 2001. She moved to New York in 2008.

Schrader was the first winner of the Pantene Pro-Voice competition in 2001, after a performance opening for Jewel at SummerStage in New York's Central Park. That same year, Schrader's group, The Wash, won the inaugural Pantene Pro-Voice Competition. In 2002, Schrader's group, known then as Think of England was chosen to be a part of Jewel's Soul City Café program, and opened three shows on her This Way tour. She also opened for other artists as diverse as India.Arie, Michelle Branch, Ray LeMontagne, and Rusted Root.