Drew Gilpin Faust grew up in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College, magna cum laude and her M.A. and Ph.D from the University of Pennsylvania. She served on the faculties of Penn and Harvard for nearly a half century and was President of Harvard from 2007 to 2018. She is author of seven books, including National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist