Catherine Drew Gilpin Faust is an American historian, college administrator, and the president of Harvard University. Faust is the first woman to serve as Harvards president and the universitys 28th president overall. Faust is the fifth woman to serve as president of an Ivy League university, and the former dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Faust is also Harvards first president since 1672 without an undergraduate or graduate degree from Harvard.

　　Graduating from Concord Academy, Concord, Massachusetts, in 1964, she earned her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College, A.M. and Ph.D. in American Civilization at the University of Pennsylvania in 1975. In the same year, she joined the Penn faculty as assistant professor of American civilization. Based on her research and teaching, she rose to Walter Annenberg Professor of History. A specialist in the history of the South in the antebellum period and Civil War, Faust developed new perspectives in intellectual history of the antebellum South and in the changing roles of women during the Civil War. She is the author of six books, including Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War, for which she won both the Society of American Historians Francis Parkman Prize and the Avery O. Craven Award from the Organization of American Historians in 1997. Fausts most recent book, This Republic of Suffering , was a critically acclaimed examination of how Americas understanding of death was shaped by the Civil War and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award.

　　On October 12, 2007, Faust delivered her installation address as the president of Harvard at Cambridge, Mass., saying, a university is not about results in the next quarter; it is not even about who a student has become by graduation. It is about learning that molds a lifetime, learning that transmits the heritage of millennia; learning that shapes the future.

　　One of Fausts first initiatives after assuming the presidency was to significantly increase financial aid at Harvard College. On December 10, 2007, Faust announced a transformative new policy for middle-class and upper-middle-class students that limited parental contributions to 10 percent for families making between $100,000 and $180,000 annually, and replaced loans with grants. In announcing the policy Faust stated, Education is the engine that makes American democracy work...And it has to work and that means people have to have access. The new policy also expanded on earlier programs that eliminated contributions for families earning earning less than $60,000 a year and greatly reduced costs for families earning less than $100,000. Similar policies were subsequently adopted by Stanford University, Yale University, and many other private U.S. universities and colleges.

　　She has made it a priority to revitalize the arts at Harvard and integrate them into the everyday life of students and staff. Faust has worked to further internationalize the University and has been a strong advocate for sustainability and has set an ambitious goal of reducing the Universitys greenhouse gas emissions, including those associated with prospective growth, by 30 percent below Harvards 2006 baseline by 2023.

　　Catherine Drew Gilpin Faust is an American historian, college administrator, and the president of Harvard University. Faust is the first woman to serve as Harvards president and the universitys 28th president overall. Faust is the fifth woman to serve as president of an Ivy League university, and the former dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Faust is also Harvards first president since 1672 without an undergraduate or graduate degree from Harvard.

　　Graduating from Concord Academy, Concord, Massachusetts, in 1964, she earned her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College, A.M. and Ph.D. in American Civilization at the University of Pennsylvania in 1975. In the same year, she joined the Penn faculty as assistant professor of American civilization. Based on her research and teaching, she rose to Walter Annenberg Professor of History. A specialist in the history of the South in the antebellum period and Civil War, Faust developed new perspectives in intellectual history of the antebellum South and in the changing roles of women during the Civil War. She is the author of six books, including Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War, for which she won both the Society of American Historians Francis Parkman Prize and the Avery O. Craven Award from the Organization of American Historians in 1997. Fausts most recent book, This Republic of Suffering , was a critically acclaimed examination of how Americas understanding of death was shaped by the Civil War and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award.

　　On October 12, 2007, Faust delivered her installation address as the president of Harvard at Cambridge, Mass., saying, a university is not about results in the next quarter; it is not even about who a student has become by graduation. It is about learning that molds a lifetime, learning that transmits the heritage of millennia; learning that shapes the future.

　　One of Fausts first initiatives after assuming the presidency was to significantly increase financial aid at Harvard College. On December 10, 2007, Faust announced a transformative new policy for middle-class and upper-middle-class students that limited parental contributions to 10 percent for families making between $100,000 and $180,000 annually, and replaced loans with grants. In announcing the policy Faust stated, Education is the engine that makes American democracy work...And it has to work and that means people have to have access. The new policy also expanded on earlier programs that eliminated contributions for families earning earning less than $60,000 a year and greatly reduced costs for families earning less than $100,000. Similar policies were subsequently adopted by Stanford University, Yale University, and many other private U.S. universities and colleges.

　　She has made it a priority to revitalize the arts at Harvard and integrate them into the everyday life of students and staff. Faust has worked to further internationalize the University and has been a strong advocate for sustainability and has set an ambitious goal of reducing the Universitys greenhouse gas emissions, including those associated with prospective growth, by 30 percent below Harvards 2006 baseline by 2023.