Ellen Hurwitz is an award winning professor of history, author and past president of three institutions of higher learning: Albright College, New England College, and American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan where she is President Emerita and Executive Director of its Foundation. She also served as Acting President at Pine Manor College. She is a Senior Fellow at the Institute of International Liberal Education at Bard College, scholar in residence at the Winter Park Institute of Rollins College, and senior consultant with Stevens Strategy. Dr. Hurwitz has been at the forefront of interdisciplinary learning in the humanities and social sciences and has developed seminal programs at five universities. She has brought her international, multilingual communication skills to the development of learning partnerships and dialogues across diverse political, national, and religious climates. Since her return to the United States in August, 2011 she has been speaking and writing about leadership at an American style university located at the crossroads of civilization, where efforts to develop democratic institutions are challenged by habits of mind and relationships with Russia, Iran, Turkey, China, Afghanistan and the United States. She is also engaged in the development of a cutting edge university, leadership coaching in the US and abroad, and in reflective writing on leadership and the liberal arts in the United States and overseas. She holds a BA from Smith College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Russian and Byzantine Studies from Columbia University, where she was appointed Chair of the University Seminar on Slavic History and Culture..