Julie Ajinkya, Ph.D.
PRINCIPAL
Julie Ajinkya, Ph.D. leads HCM Strategists' portfolio on modern learners, driving the firm's strategy and thought leadership on the students too often overlooked by traditional higher education policy: working adults, parenting students, justice-impacted individuals, rural learners, and those with some college but no credential (SCNC). Her work centers on designing policies and practices that meet these learners where they are, recognizing that the paths to and through postsecondary education look different than they did a generation ago.
Julie's clients have included national and regional foundations (e.g., ECMC Foundation, Imaginable Futures, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, College Futures Foundation, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation), as well as leading non-profits and state higher education agencies working to improve how higher education serves modern learners. Her leadership in the field includes leading Degrees When Due, a national initiative helping institutions and states re-engage adults with some college and no credential, as well as leading the Institute for Higher Education Policy's #CollegeNotPrison campaign, which worked to raise awareness about the importance of advancing postsecondary access for justice-impacted students. Julie has also testified before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce on the importance of Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) in expanding opportunity for underserved students and her writing has appeared in Diverse Issues in Higher Education, and has deep experience designing learning experiences for a range of stakeholders, from policymakers to practitioners, leveraging her expertise in translating complex research into actionable, field-ready strategy.
Prior to HCM Strategists, Julie 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). Julie has also served as a Visiting Professor with Cornell's Brooks School of Public Policy, teaching courses on race, inequality, and public policy, and currently teaches public policy and a course on experiential learning with the University of California, Washington Center.
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, Julie 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, she 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.