In this episode, Martha and Indira speak candidly with Drew Faust, an American historian who was the first woman to serve as president of Harvard University from 2007 to 2018.  

She received her bachelor’s degree with honors in history from Bryn Mawr College and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history from the University of Pennsylvania. As a scholar she specializes in the study of the South in the antebellum period and the Civil War, authoring seven books, including her most recent memoir entitled Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury.  

Drew discusses her own experiences in the position and how she had the ‘nerve’ to get there. 

Episode Resources

• Drew Gilpin Faust. (2023). Necessary Trouble. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
• Piper, Martha and Samarasekera, Indira. Nerve: Lessons on leadership from two women who went first. Toronto, Ontario ECW Press, 2021.
   www.nerve2021.com
• Sommers, Christina Hoff. "A Necessary Option."  The New York Times (September 6, 2016).  nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/10/17/single-sex-schools-separate-but-equal/a-necessary-option.
• Slaughter, Anne-Marie.  "Why Women Still Can't Have It All."  The Atlantic (July/August 2012).  theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-cant-have-it-all/309020/.
• Indiana University.  "Men Do Hear--But Differently than Women, Brain Images Show." Science Daily (November 29, 2000). sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/11/001129075326.htm.
• Coats, Cari H.  "Grit and Grace: A Power Combination for Women Leaders."  Forbes (August 12, 2019).  forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2019/08/12/grit-and-grace-a-power-combination-for-women-leaders/?sh=5b111428404a.

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