Lawrence Bacow to become Harvard's 29th president

Lawrence Bacow, a former president of Tufts University who has three degrees from Harvard, will succeed Drew Faust, the university's first female president, the school announced Sunday.

"Larry Bacow is one of the most accomplished, admired, insightful, and effective leaders in American higher education," said William Lee, chair of the university's Presidential Search Committee and a senior fellow for the Harvard Corporation, the school's governing body.

Faust has served as Harvard's president since 2007 and announced last June she would step down from her post this summer.

"This is a pivotal moment for higher education ... but also a time when the singular value of higher education and university research has too often been challenged and called into doubt," Lee said.

"Such a time calls for skillful leadership, strategic thinking, and disciplined execution," Lee added. "Larry will provide just that."

Bacow, 66, who earned a Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard, served as president of nearby Tufts University for a decade.

Prior to his time at Tufts, Bacow held multiple leadership roles at MIT, where earned his undergraduate degree before attending Harvard Law School.

Bacow has spent the past six years at Harvard, serving as President-in-Residence of the university's Graduate School of Education before taking on his current role as the Hauser Leader-in-Residence at the Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership.

As a member of the Harvard Corporation, Bacow has also "played an integral role in Harvard's own governance," Lee said,

Harvard is looking for a steady hand to lead it through a tumultuous period. The university is currently the subject of an investigation by the US Justice Department into its affirmative action policies.