During the period of transition from College to Institute, Mary Maples Dunn served as interim leader, as both acting president of Radcliffe College and acting dean of the Radcliffe Institute. On January 1, 2001, Drew Gilpin Faust became the Institute's first permanent dean; she stepped down in July 2007 to become president of Harvard University. Barbara J. Grosz, Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, served as interim dean following Faust's departure and was named dean on April 28, 2008; she stepped down in June 2011. After serving as interim dean from 2011 to 2012, Lizabeth Cohen became dean. A historian, Cohen stepped down on June 30, 2018, to return to research, writing, and teaching.