A Penn History professor for 25 years, Faust established her reputation on College Green

Drew Gilpin Faust is about to break new ground in Harvard University history, but her academic foundation was built deep in the stacks of Van Pelt library.

The first Harvard president since 1672 not to hold a degree from the school, she received her master's and Ph.D. from Penn. Before heading to Cambridge in 2001 to take the reigns of Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study as its dean, Faust established herself as a well-respected professor - and leader - at Penn.

"I knew her scholarship before I really knew her," said former Penn president and History professor Sheldon Hackney. "When I came in '81, she wasn't so much a rising star as an established scholar."

After receiving her master's and doctoral degrees in American Civilization from Penn in 1971 and 1975, respectively, Faust remained at the University as a History professor.

Hackney, who served as Penn's president from 1981 to 1993, caught sight of Faust's leadership capabilities soon upon arrival. By the late '80s, he was trying unsuccessfully to convince her to become the dean of the School of Arts and Sciences.

"She really had the trust of the administration and faculty," he said. "Everyone always spoke so highly of her judgement."

And colleagues also noticed her charisma.

"Whether Sheldon Hackney or [Judith] Rodin" - Hackney's successor - "needed someone with judgement on a very important issue, they always turned to Drew," said former Penn colleague and Harvard professor Bruce Mann.

Faust became a History professor at Penn in 1975 and was appointed an Annenberg Professor of History in 1989. She later became the director of the Women's Studies program in 1996.

"Drew was a real center of gravity in the Penn History Department, someone who commanded respect from students and colleagues alike," History professor Thomas Sugrue said.

However, even as she gained respect as a leader, Penn colleagues and contemporaries never lost site of her scholarly capabilities.

"I think the most distinctive feature of Drew Faust's identity is that she's an eminent scholar and teacher," University President Amy Gutmann said.

Faust focuses on the 19th century American South, as well as the Civil War. A Southerner by birth, she grew up during the Civil Rights Movement in a region transitioning away from segregation. "I think she was greatly affected by that," said Penn history professor Steven Hahn, who has known her since the late 1970s.

Faust has authored five books, including the Francis Parkman Prize Winner, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War.

Colleagues also laud her teaching abilities.

"Her lectures were full of information and really gripping, but not flashy," Hackney said, regarding her undergraduate course on the history of the South, which he attended. "She was not flamboyant as a lecturer, but extremely well-organized."

Despite near universal praise from her contemporaries, Faust has remained humble.

"She's not in your face trying to demonstrate how smart she is," Hahn said. "To say that she's not arrogant is not to say that she's not confident."

Hahn said that Faust's new role is not surprising. After seeing her at a meeting at Harvard several years ago, he said he was "really struck by how formidable she was, how clever her views were, how much Summers seemed to depend on her."

"I remember walking out of that meeting and thinking, 'She's going to run this place.'"

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