Prior to her appointment as provost, she was dean of the Stanford School of Engineering from 2014 to 2017 and director of the US Department of Energy’s SLAC National Acceleratory Laboratory from 2007 to 2012.

[2][3] Drell began her career as a postdoctoral research associate at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a member of the Mark-II collaboration.

During her tenure, she was the deputy director of Cornell's Laboratory of Nuclear Studies and served as chair of the Synchrotron Radiation Committee.

[3] In September 2014, Drell was named dean of the Stanford School of Engineering, the first woman to serve in that role.

She has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award.