(NewsNation) — Upon the resignation of Columbia University President Minouche Shafik on Wednesday following intense criticism of her handling of Palestinian protests on campus, it was announced Katrina Armstrong will take her place.
Armstrong came to Columbia in 2022 as the CEO of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She also serves as executive vice president for Health and Biomedical Sciences at the university.
According to Columbia’s website, Armstrong received a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Yale University, where she also studied pre-med. After graduating, she spent a year at the National Institutes of Health in a laboratory studying diabetes and eye disease and then began medical school at Johns Hopkins University.
Armstrong went to the University of Pennsylvania after that, where she earned a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology and joined the faculty in the School of Medicine. She later became the first woman physician in chief at Massachusetts General Hospital and was recruited to Harvard to lead its department of medicine.
As physician in chief, Armstrong presided over Massachusetts General Hospital’s response to the Boston Marathon bombing.
“Katrina brings a truly exceptional skillset to our University and our current challenges,” David Greenwald and Claire Shipman, co-chairs of Columbia University’s board of trustees, said. “She is a medical leader who cares deeply about community and society — a scientist and a humanist.”
What Armstrong’s said about Columbia’s future
When it comes to the protests on campus and the university’s response to them, Armstrong has made statements calling for empathy and respect and also support for freedom of speech. In these statements, she’s rejected hateful language and calls for violence.
“As I step into this role, I am acutely aware of the trials the University has faced over the past year. We should neither understate their significance, nor allow them to define who we are and what we will become,” she said in a letter to the Columbia community Wednesday.
“The familiar excitement and promise of a new academic year are informed this year by the presence of change and continuing concerns, but also by the immense opportunity to look forward, to join together for the laudable mission we are here to serve, and to become our best selves individually and institutionally.”
