Katrina Armstrong, a prominent physician and medical researcher, has been named the next chief executive officer of Columbia University Irving Medical Center, executive vice president for health and biomedical sciences, and dean of the faculties of health sciences and medicine. Her tenure will begin on March 1.
Armstrong is currently a professor of clinical medicine at Harvard Medical School and a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. She is also chair of the department of medicine and physician-in-chief of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, overseeing the management of two thousand faculty, residents, and fellows in ten clinical divisions and more than a dozen research centers.
A native of Alabama, Armstrong attended Yale before earning her medical degree from Johns Hopkins and a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania. Before joining the Harvard faculty in 2013, she practiced medicine and taught at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine for many years.
An expert on the genetics of cancer and personalized medicine, Armstrong has done groundbreaking research on cancer risk and prevention in Black and Latino patients; racial inequities in genetic testing and neonatal care; and the impact of segregation, discrimination, and patient distrust on the health of marginalized populations.
“Nothing is more important to the University and the nation — indeed the world — than the evolution of ever-deepening knowledge related to human health, the education of the next generation of professionals who will serve humanity in this realm, and the creation of a just and effective system of health care,” said President Lee C. Bollinger. “Dr. Armstrong is the best leader for this era.”
