Catharine Drew Gilpin Faust (born September 18, 1947)[1] is an American historian who served as the 28th president of Harvard University, the first woman in that role.

This Republic of Suffering (2008) was a critically acclaimed exploration of how the United States' understanding of death was shaped by the high losses during the Civil War.

[14] Faust replaced Lawrence Summers, who resigned on June 30, 2006, after a series of controversial statements that led to mounting criticism from members of Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

During a press conference on campus, Faust said, "I hope that my own appointment can be one symbol of an opening of opportunities that would have been inconceivable even a generation ago."

On December 10, 2007, Faust announced a new policy for middle-class and upper-middle-class students, which limited parental contributions to 10 percent for families making between $100,000 and $180,000 annually, and replaced loans with grants.

In addition, she has been a strong advocate for sustainability and has set an ambitious goal of reducing the university's greenhouse gas emissions by 2016, including those associated with prospective growth, by 30 percent below Harvard's 2006 baseline.

At Harvard, the confidential nature of the process includes a panel that consists of outside experts and internal faculty members from outside the department.

Also in Faust's tenure, Harvard's economics department witnessed an exodus of prominent faculty to Stanford and MIT, including Raj Chetty, Susan Athey, Guido Imbens, Drew Fudenberg, and Nobel Laureate Al Roth.

[22] In the wake of a series of layoffs in June 2009, Faust was criticized for refusing to accept a pay cut that would have saved jobs.

In the months preceding the layoffs, various campus groups called upon Faust and other administrators to reduce their salaries as a means of cutting costs campus-wide.

[26] Faust championed organic lawn management of the campus grounds and Harvard Yard during her tenure, including adopting the practices at Elmwood, the president’s house on Brattle Street.

The move reduced the use of irrigation water by 30%, made Harvard Yard greener, and improved the health of the campus orchard.

[27] In December 2010, Faust and Stanford University president John L. Hennessy co-wrote an editorial in support of passage of the DREAM Act.

[29] In 2016, Harvard began to study its history with slavery following Faust's public acknowledgement that the school was "directly complicit in America's system of racial bondage", then had a commemorative plaque installed on campus to honor the enslaved whose labor was exploited by the institution.