In both my research and my larger professional life, I am interested in how strong communities are created and sustained. My scholarly research focuses on European convents in the period 1400-1700. I am fascinated by how women led these institutions and cared for their inhabitants. My own experience in higher education administration is a reflection of what I’ve studied all these years. Like the women who ran convents my work as a department chair and then a dean was a continuous problem-solving exercise at the intersection of people, budgets, and politics. Like these abbesses, what matters most to me is creating strong communities that center care.