Himaja Nimmagadda

Himaja serves as Associate Director of the Inclusive, Peer, Onsite, Distance (IPOD) Mentoring Program, whose mission is to diversify the economics profession by providing mentorship support and resources to graduates of the AEA Summer Training Program. The program is in its second year and now has over 80 participants, including both mentors and mentees.

At WISER, Himaja has studied Asian American populations with the goal of providing a more accurate view of the populations' social and economic status through disaggregating by region of national origin. Additionally, she is interested in matters of data protection and digital privacy that affect women across race, age, and geographic location within the United States. Himaja is particularly focused on the impact of outdated privacy laws on matters of healthcare and reproductive justice.

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Himaja received her B.S. in Economics from Virginia Commonwealth University and is working towards completing an M.Eng. in Cybersecurity Policy and Compliance at George Washington University.

  • The Unexpected Impact of Digital Privacy January 26, 2023 - Digital Privacy Day is January 28th, making this Digital Privacy Week. While this may not mean much for those outside the cybersecurity community, it is essential to recognize data privacy affects everyone every day. It is time to think about digital privacy and safety with the same care and respect as physical privacy and security. We protect ourselves, our homes, ...
  • Leave No One Offline November 16, 2022 - Last Tuesday, I attended an election night party for Wes Moore and Aruna Miller, now governor-elect and lieutenant governor-elect of Maryland. It was a night of firsts; Wes Moore became the first Black elected as governor of Maryland, and Aruna Miller became the first South Asian person elected lieutenant governor of a state in the entire history of the United ...
  • The Value Of Seeing Yourself October 19, 2022 - As an organization that advocates for a society where policy research is inclusive of the needs of Asian, Black, Hispanic, Indigenous American, and Multiracial women, we believe in the importance of seeing yourself in the data. October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. The theme this year is “See Yourself in Cyber.” It is meant to encourage the idea that cybersecurity is something ...
  • Reproductive Freedom July 1, 2022 - As of June 30th, these are the states in the United States in which abortion is entirely or mostly banned following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade last Friday, June 24, 2022. The states in burgundy have banned abortion in most cases. The states in blue have temporarily blocked trigger bans and it is likely that abortion will ...
  • Who is training the machines? March 23, 2022 - We must note the role that creating equitable spaces and practices plays in our physical and digital realities.
  • How much for a bunch of onions? February 23, 2022 - The conversation around poverty often lacks nuance. As per federal standards, even a penny above the threshold (poverty line) and you are no longer considered to be living in poverty. It takes more than a penny to fundamentally change living conditions, life expectancy, educational attainment, food, housing, and income insecurity.
  • The Power of Disaggregated Data January 19, 2022 - Poor and working-class Asian Americans slip through the cracks, often resulting from harmful stereotypes such as the model minority myth, which fuels the misconception that Asian Americans are all highly educated, wealthy, and successful.
  • Beauty and The Caste December 15, 2021 - The politics of beauty pageants bring to question (Indian) society’s complicated relationship with Euro-centric aesthetic homogeneity. Code Switch by NPR tells us that decisions about who society holds up as beautiful also have a lot to do with class. Historian Nell Irvin Painter notes that many of the things we consider beautiful are just proxies for wealth.
  • Happy Diwali November 3, 2021 - This year, Diwali occurs just after an election cycle, and who is elected will have implications for reproductive rights and reproductive justice. If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, it could put safe, legal abortion out of reach for one-third of women. Attacks on abortion access disproportionately affect lower-income Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native American, and Multi-Racial women, as they are more likely to live in states with restrictive laws.
  • Netflix, Squid Games, and A Gender Gap October 20, 2021 - Yesterday, Rhonda was on the BBC’s Business Matters discussing South Korea’s potential lawsuit against Netflix.  Squid Games, Netflix’s most recent success, overwhelmed South Korea’s broadband. While some have questioned if such a lawsuit violates net neutrality, she questioned the impact on creativity.  Will Netflix continue to purchase scripts they believe will be a hit?  If not, what impact will that have on creativity for the ...