Julie Ajinkya
PRINCIPAL
Julie Ajinkya is a Principal at HCM Strategists where she sustains a portfolio serving working adults. Her research and advocacy expertise focuses on innovative models that improve degree completion for underserved populations, such as students of color, returning adults, justice-involved communities, and rural communities.
Julie has also served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) Scholars, the Vice President of Applied Research at the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), and on the Progress 2050 team at the Center for American Progress (CAP). She is currently a Visiting Professor for Cornell’s Brooks School of Public Policy, where she teaches courses on race, inequality and public policy.
Julie served as a founding member of the Advisory Council for Amherst College’s Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning, an initiative that creates talent pipelines for the college’s first-generation students and students from low-income households. In 2019, Diverse Issues in Higher Education named Julie one of the nation’s Top 35 Women in Higher Education.
Originally from New Jersey, Ajinkya earned her M.A. with distinction and Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University, and holds a B.A. in Political Science from Amherst College. In 2023, Ajinkya also published her first children’s book, A Very Asian Guide to Indian Food, to cultivate curiosity and empathy in kids by inviting them to explore different foods and cultures and the series has been featured in numerous holiday gift guides, including Food & Wine magazine and Cravings by Chrissy Tiegen. She lives in Washington D.C. with her husband and their two sons, where she enjoys anything cooking or comedy-related in her spare time.