Katrina Armstrong stepped down from her position as interim president of Columbia University (Photo courtesy of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics).
Katrina Armstrong stepped down from her position as interim president of Columbia University on March 28 after serving in the role for seven months.
Armstrong — who previously spent 17 years at Penn — assumed the role of interim president after then-Columbia University President and former Penn professor Nemat “Minouche” Shafik resigned in August 2024. Armstrong's departure comes at a time of increased federal pressure on Columbia and universities across the country.
Armstrong earned a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology from the Medical School in 1998. She has since served in a variety of leadership positions at Penn including chief of general internal medicine, associate director of the Abramson Cancer Center, co-director of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, and director of research at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics.
Armstrong will return to her previous position as chief executive officer of Columbia University's Irving Medical Center. Claire Shipman, a co-chair of the Columbia Board of Trustees and former journalist, has been appointed as acting president until the Board completes a presidential search, according to a Columbia University press release.
“Over the last few months, I appreciate having had the opportunity to play a small part in navigating this vast enterprise through some of the most difficult moments in its history,” Armstrong wrote in a statement released Friday. “The world needs Columbia University, and you can be assured that I will do everything I can to tell that story.”
The change in leadership comes three weeks after 1968 Wharton graduate and U.S. President Donald Trump revoked $400 million of federal funding from Columbia “due to the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” On March 21, Armstrong announced a series of university policy changes in line with demands from the Trump administration in an effort to restore the funding.
The changes — which were met with criticism from Columbia student and faculty groups — include a ban on face masks to conceal one's identity, the power for public safety officers to arrest students, and a new senior vice provost charged with reviewing several Columbia departments and institutions, including the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies.
Shafik was named Columbia's president in July 2023 and presided over the University’s initial response to the Israel-Hamas war, including a campus encampment that lasted into May.
Shafik was invited to testify in the December congressional hearing that ultimately led to former Penn president Liz Magill’s resignation but declined, citing a scheduling conflict. She would go on to testify in front of the same committee in April.
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