One week after ousting a newly elected president in a no confidence vote, the Marshall Islands Parliament elected government minister and educator Hilda Heine as his successor early Wednesday.

A master’s degree graduate of the University of Hawaii, Heine is one of the first women to lead any independent Pacific island nation. The holder of an educational doctorate from the University of Southern California, she is also the first Marshallese to earn a doctoral degree.

She was the only candidate on the ballot after Parliament gave the boot to Casten Nemra, who had only been inaugurated the previous week after having been elected by a single vote. Parliament members said the no confidence vote reflected a lack of clear majority support rather than performance issues or wrongdoing on the part of Nemra.

Heine, by contrast, received 24 of the 30 ballots cast, with six abstentions. She is said to be widely respected and to have broad support within Marshall Islands government.

Heine is the second consecutive Marshall Islands leader to have strong connections to Hawaii in recent years. Nemra was elected to succeed Christopher Loeak, a graduate of Hawaii Pacific College (now Hawaii Pacific University).

Heine served as minister of Education under Loeak, whose administration has been credited with raising the visibility of the immediate risks that climate change has brought to the low-lying island nation. Shortly after becoming president, Loeak addressed the United Nations General Assembly, telling members, “It is the seas that are rising, not the islands that are sinking.”

Heine was the Marshall Islands representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the work of which helped pave the way for the unprecedented Paris Agreement reached last month at the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

The Marshall Islands, with a population of just over 70,000, and other similarly small Pacific island countries were disproportionately influential in getting the Paris Agreement strengthened and passed.

The Marshalls are only two meters above sea level, and some scientists believe the nation will eventually have to be evacuated, leaving its citizens environmental refugees, meaning Heine’s leadership will be critical over the next four years as her country tries to survive the growing effects of global warming.