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Drew Gilpin Faust

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Drew Gilpin Faust
File:Drew Gilpin Faust 2013.jpg
Faust in 2013
Born
Catharine Drew Gilpin Faust

(1947-09-18) September 18, 1947 (age 79)
New York City, U.S.
Occupation(s)Historian, writer, academic administrator
Years active1975–present
Known for28th president of Harvard University, first female president of Harvard, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study

Catharine Drew Gilpin Faust (born September 18, 1947) is a distinguished American historian and writer who held the position of the 28th president of Harvard University from 2007 until 2018. She made history as Harvard’s first female president, the first leader since 1672 without a Harvard degree, and the first to be raised in the South. Faust also established and served as dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She was consistently recognized among the world's 100 most influential women by Forbes, achieving a peak rank of 33rd in 2014.

Early life and education

Born in New York City, Drew Gilpin was raised in Clarke County, Virginia, located in the Shenandoah Valley. She is the daughter of Catharine Ginna (née Mellick) and McGhee Tyson Gilpin, a Princeton alumnus engaged in thoroughbred horse breeding and various enterprises. Her paternal grandfather, Kenneth Newcomer Gilpin, was a businessman who also served in the Virginia House of Delegates and was a World War aviator. Additionally, her great-grandfather, General Lawrence Tyson, represented Tennessee as a U.S. senator during the 1920s. Faust’s lineage also traces back to Jonathan Edwards, who was Princeton University's third president.

Faust completed her secondary education at Concord Academy in Massachusetts, graduating in 1964. She obtained her B.A. in history with magna cum laude honors from Bryn Mawr College in 1968. Continuing her studies at the University of Pennsylvania, she earned an M.A. in American civilization in 1971 and completed her Ph.D. there in 1975. Her doctoral dissertation, titled A Sacred Circle: The Social Role of the Intellectual in the Old South, 1840–1860, was later published in 1977 under the title A Sacred Circle: The Dilemma of the Intellectual in the Old South, 1840–1860.

Career

Faust began her academic career in 1975 at the University of Pennsylvania, joining as an assistant professor specializing in American civilization with a focus on Southern history during the antebellum era and the Civil War. She eventually attained the position of Walter Annenberg Professor of History.

Following the publication of her dissertation as A Sacred Circle: Dilemma of the Intellectual in the Old South, 1840-1860 (1977), she authored multiple nonfiction works on American history. Notably, she wrote James Henry Hammond and the Old South (1982), a biography of South Carolina Governor James Henry Hammond. Her 1996 publication, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War, received both the Society of American Historians’ Francis Parkman Prize and the Avery O. Craven Award. The book This Republic of Suffering (2008), which examines how Civil War casualties shaped American attitudes toward death, was shortlisted for both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award.

In 2001, Faust became the inaugural dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, established following Radcliffe College’s merger with Harvard University. On February 8, 2007, she was chosen as Harvard’s president and officially assumed office three days later, marking her as Harvard's first female president. She succeeded Lawrence Summers, who resigned amid controversy; interim leadership was provided by Derek Bok during 2006–2007.

During her inauguration on October 12, 2007, Faust highlighted a commitment to enduring education rather than immediate outcomes:

A university’s mission transcends short-term achievements; it is not merely about who students become upon graduation but about lifelong learning that preserves millennia-old heritage and shapes what lies ahead.

Early into her presidency, Faust broadened Harvard’s financial aid initiatives. On December 10, 2007, she introduced a policy capping parental contributions at 10% for families earning between $100,000 and $180,000 annually while replacing loans with grants. This built upon earlier programs that waived contributions for families earning below $60,000 and reduced costs for those under $100,000. Comparable financial aid models were subsequently adopted by institutions such as Stanford and Yale.

Faust championed increased Congressional funding for scientific research and support for junior faculty members. She emphasized expanding Harvard’s global engagement and reinvigorating arts programs on campus. A dedicated advocate for sustainability, she set an objective to cut Harvard’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30% relative to its 2006 levels by 2016. Her environmental initiatives included promoting organic lawn care practices that decreased irrigation requirements by approximately one-third while enhancing campus landscaping.

In May 2008, Faust refrained from commenting on contentious tenure decisions involving economics professor Christina Romer. During her administration, Harvard’s Economics Department experienced significant faculty turnover with notable departures to Stanford and MIT.

Amid budget constraints in 2009 that threatened layoffs, Faust faced criticism for declining to reduce her own salary. Estimates of her annual compensation ranged from $693,739 to $775,043; nonetheless, under mounting pressure Harvard implemented salary freezes alongside staff reductions affecting roughly 2.4% of non-faculty employees.

In December 2010, Faust co-signed an editorial advocating for the DREAM Act, legislation which ultimately did not pass Congress.

In 2011, she authorized an agreement reinstating Harvard’s Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) program after nearly forty years following repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell."

In 2016, Faust publicly acknowledged Harvard’s historical involvement with slavery and oversaw installation of a commemorative plaque honoring enslaved workers on campus. Her successor continued this legacy by commissioning an official study in 2019.

Faust stepped down as Harvard president in June 2018; four days later she joined Goldman Sachs’ Board of Directors while maintaining her professorship at Harvard.

In 2023, she released a memoir titled Necessary Trouble, reflecting on her childhood experiences growing up amid segregation in Virginia and her awakening to the Civil Rights movement.

Personal life

Drew Gilpin Faust's initial marriage was to surgeon Stephen E. Faust. Following their separation, she wed Charles E. Rosenberg, a medical historian at Harvard and former dissertation advisor to Faust. Together, they have a daughter, Jessica Rosenberg, who graduated from Harvard and is employed by The New Yorker. Additionally, Faust has a stepdaughter named Leah Rosenberg. Her cousin, G.P. Mellick Belshaw, served as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey.

In 1988, Faust received a breast cancer diagnosis and made a full recovery, though she opted to keep the specifics private.

Honors, affiliations and awards

  • Inducted into the American Philosophical Society in 2007
  • Included in the Time 100 list in 2007
  • Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
  • Awarded honorary degrees from Bowdoin College (2007), University of Pennsylvania (2008), Yale University (2008), and Princeton University (2010)
  • Repeatedly recognized on Forbes' "100 Most Powerful Women," reaching #33 in 2014, up from #43 in 2013
  • Presented the National Endowment for the Humanities Jefferson Lecture in 2011 titled "Telling War Stories: Reflections of a Civil War Historian"
  • Delivered Boston College’s Sesquicentennial Address in 2012: "Scholarship and the Role of the University"
  • Gave the Rede Lecture at the University of Cambridge in 2015: "Two Wars and the Long Twentieth Century: the United States, 1861–65; Britain 1914–18"
  • Honored with the John W. Kluge Prize by the Library of Congress in 2018
  • Recipient of the Newberry Library Award in Chicago in 2024

Awards for written works

  • Honored with the 2009 Bancroft Prize from Columbia University for This Republic of Suffering (2008)
  • Received the 2008 American History Book Prize for This Republic of Suffering
  • Her essay "Dread Void of Uncertainty" was selected as one of the top ten history essays in 2005 by the Organization of American Historians
  • Awarded the 1997 Francis Parkman Prize by the Society of American Historians for Mothers of Invention

Selected works

  • Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023) .
  • This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (Knopf, 2008) . Included on the New York Times Book Review list of "The 10 Best Books of 2008." Finalist for both the National Book Award (2008) and Pulitzer Prize (2009).
  • "'The Dread Void of Uncertainty': Naming the Dead in the American Civil War" (Southern Cultures, Summer 2005).
  • Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 1996) .
  • Southern Stories: Slaveholders in Peace and War (University of Missouri Press, 1992) .
  • The Creation of Confederate Nationalism: Ideology and Identity in the Civil War South (Louisiana State University Press, 1982) .
  • James Henry Hammond and the Old South: A Design for Mastery (Louisiana State University Press, 1982) .
  • A Sacred Circle: The Dilemma of the Intellectual in the Old South, 1840–1860 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977) .

Filmography

Film
Year Title Role Director
2012 American Experience: Death and the Civil War Self Ric Burns
2015 The Gettysburg Address Self Sean Conant

External links

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