Columbia University will be led by a woman for the first time in its 268-year history

Since 1754, Columbia University has had a antheral president — but that's astir to change. The University announced Wednesday that Nemat (Minouche) Shafik, a starring economist and author, volition go its 20th president and archetypal pistillate leader.

Since 2007, Shafik, 60, has served astatine the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), archetypal arsenic manager earlier being promoted to president and vice chancellor successful 2017.

In an announcement from Columbia's Board of Trustees, Shafik was praised for her quality and dedication to sparking change.

"What acceptable Minouche isolated arsenic a campaigner was her unshakable assurance successful the captious relation institutions of higher acquisition tin and indispensable play successful solving the world's astir analyzable problems," the committee said. "Like each of america successful the Columbia community, she believes that successful bid to bring astir meaningful change, we person a corporate work to harvester our distinctive intelligence capacities with groups and organizations beyond the academy." 

Born successful Alexandria, Egypt, Shafik and her household immigrated to the U.S. aft losing everything successful the "political upheaval of the 1960s," Shafik says successful an introductory video for the Columbia community. 

"We moved to Savannah, Georgia erstwhile I was conscionable 4 years old. I attended tons of schools arsenic we moved astir the American south. I besides astatine that clip discovered section libraries," she shares. "I emotion to work and that was my way for discovering the world. My begetter ever said to me, 'they tin instrumentality everything distant from you but for your education.'" 

Shafik's father, an biology idiosyncratic and professor, and mother, a teacher and caput of a school, instilled the worth of acquisition successful her precise aboriginal on. This played a relation successful her emotion for learning, arsenic she went connected to person a BA astatine the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, her maestro of subject astatine LSE, and her Ph.D. astatine the University of Oxford. 

By property 36, Shafik had go the youngest-ever vice president of the World Bank successful the 1990s. She besides taught astatine Georgetown University and the Wharton Business School.

Shafik succeeds Lee C. Bollinger, who served arsenic Columbia's president for 21 years and announced his plans for departure astatine the extremity of the 2022-2023 schoolhouse year. 

 "I consciousness like, if I had looked each implicit the satellite for the champion idiosyncratic to adjacent pb Columbia, I would person chosen Minouche Shafik," Bollinger said successful a statement. "Her expertise, her experiences — some idiosyncratic and nonrecreational — and her wide outlook connected world and nationalist beingness marque her an inspired appointment."

Shafik says she's excited astir the accidental to research different points of views and antithetic approaches to problems arsenic she embarks connected her caller travel arsenic president. 

"That's what I emotion astir Columbia. Whether it's tackling challenges similar clime alteration oregon a planetary nationalist wellness crisis, oregon exploring the foundations of philosophy, science, and the arts done the halfway curriculum, Columbia thrives arsenic a halfway for ideas and the advancement of cognition due to the fact that it is simply a rich, divers assemblage wherever everyone has thing to contribute."

As president, Shafik volition person the work of upholding the university's committedness to diversity, equity, inclusion; Columbia boasts having the archetypal African American advocacy radical connected a multi-racial field successful the U.S., the archetypal gay-rights advocacy radical connected immoderate assemblage campus, and the 4th largest planetary pupil colonisation of immoderate U.S. university. 

Columbia joins universities similar Harvard, Dartmouth, and George Washington University, which person each elected their archetypal pistillate president to commencement aboriginal this year

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