Joshua DuBois, the Pentecostal pastor tapped early in President Obama’s first term to lead a revamped White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, will leave office Friday, says The New York Times.

The president announced Mr. DuBois’s departure Thursday at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, calling the young minister a close friend who “has been at my side—in work and in prayer—for years now.” The White House said Mr. DuBois plans to teach at New York University and start an organization to help government and private institutions team up with faith groups to tackle social problems.

Mr. DuBois steered the office in a similarly policy-minded direction, engaging leaders from across the faith spectrum on social, economic, and health issues, but it did not explicitly tackle the thorny constitutional question of whether groups that receive White House support can discriminate on the basis of religion in hiring.