Kellerman received her B.A from Sarah Lawrence College, and her M.A. (Russian and East European Studies), M.Phil., and Ph.D. (Political Science) degrees from Yale University. She was awarded a Danforth Fellowship and three Fulbright fellowships.

In addition to the above-named professorships, Kellerman served as Dean of Graduate Studies and Research at Fairleigh Dickinson (1987—90); held the Fulbright Chair in American Studies at Uppsala (1996—97); was Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Leadership at the Academy of Leadership at the University of Maryland (1997—2000); served as Founding Executive Director of the Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership (2000 to 2003); and as the Center’s Research Director from 2003-2006. She was also cofounder of the International Leadership Association (ILA), which is now some 2,000 members strong.

In recent years Kellerman has become as interested in followership as in leadership; as interested in bad leadership as in good leadership; and as interested in how women lead as in how men lead. Her approach to leadership and followership is interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary. And, instead of being primarily practice-based, it is in the venerable tradition of the liberal arts.

Kellerman has appeared often on media outlets such as CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, NPR, Reuters and BBC, and she has contributed articles and reviews to the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and Harvard Business Review. Her blogs have appeared primarily on web sites such as Harvard Business Review and Washington Post.

In recent years she has given talks in Berlin, London, Moscow, Rome, Sao Paolo, Shanghai, Zurich, Jerusalem, Turin, Toronto, and Montreal. She is on the Advisory Board of the Leadership Research Network, on the Advisory Panel of the White House Leadership Project Report, on the editorial Board of Leadership Quarterly, and on the Publications Committee of the International Leadership Association.