Ethel Percy Andrus (September 21, 1884 – July 13, 1967) was a long-time educator and the first female high school principal in California.

[4] Andrus founded a separate organization, the National Retired Teachers Association (NRTA) in 1947.

She approached more than 30 companies to offer health insurance to retired teachers before she found someone willing to take a chance on NRTA members in 1956.

Among Andrus' many accomplishments is a stint as a faculty member at Chicago's Lewis Institute, a predecessor of Illinois Institute of Technology, and being the first woman principal of a major urban high school in the state of California at Abraham Lincoln High School in Los Angeles.

The Extra Mile pays homage to Americans like Andrus who set their own self-interest aside to help others and successfully brought positive social change to the United States.