[4] In 1925, she became the first woman elected president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA).

"[7] In 1933, Gray was elected president of the National Education Association (NEA),[8][9] the first Philadelphian and the second classroom teacher to hold that executive position.

[10] Gray toured the United States as a speaker during her term as NEA president,[1][11] and promoted school district mergers as a budget help during the Great Depression.

[13] Gray was a delegate to the World Federation of Education Associations meeting in Edinburgh in 1925.

Gray died after a surgery to amputate her gangrenous right leg in 1948, at the age of 72, at a hospital in Philadelphia.