Nemat Shafik was not even halfway through her first semester as president of Columbia University when protests related to the Israel-Hamas war began reverberating through college campuses across the United States.

Dr. Shafik, who is a native of Alexandria, Egypt, and goes by Minouche, is an economist who began her career at the World Bank. Her résumé includes time as the deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund and as the deputy governor of the Bank of England, and she has also served in the British House of Lords, the upper chamber of Parliament.

Like leaders at other American universities, she contended in recent months with dueling protests, reports of antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus and questions of whether pro-Palestinian supporters have been unfairly silenced.

On Wednesday, she announced her resignation. Here is a timeline of Dr. Shafik’s tenure at the university:

Jan. 18, 2023

The university’s board of trustees announces that Dr. Shafik, then the president of the London School of Economics and Political Science, will be the 20th president of Columbia.

July 1, 2023

Soon after Dr. Shafik’s first day as president, July 1, she tells Columbia Magazine that her leadership philosophy centers on leading from behind when possible. “Occasionally, you need to step out in front and point an institution in a different direction,” she says.

She continues: “But most of the time, if you’re working with great people, you can allow your colleagues to flourish and take things where they need to go. I find that this works well at universities, where you’ve got immensely talented individuals all around you.”