As Executive Director, Elspeth Carruthers focuses on developing key practices that are tailored to enhance team collaborations in humanistic research, and on providing a physical and programmatic environment at the Neubauer Collegium that fosters creative and lively research collaborations. Her work involves exploring new constituencies for humanities-informed research, and expanding the impact of the Neubauer Collegium's work by creating new partnerships, locally and internationally. Elspeth earned a PhD in Medieval History from Princeton University, where her research interests included: urban law, identity, and environmental history in eastern and central Europe during the High Middle Ages. Prior to joining the Neubauer Collegium in December 2014, Elspeth spent five years as a leader in the Foundations and Corporate Relations Office at the University of Chicago. During that time, she played a central role in the launch of Arete, a research accelerator at the University. Before coming to the University, she spent nine years as a member of the history faculty at the University of Illinois-Chicago and had a former career in music, first as a freelance classical trumpet player and then as performance consultant in Toronto for groups such as the Canadian Brass.