BlindianProject Welcomes Kavitha Rajagopalan as Board Member

BlindianProject is pleased to welcome Kavitha Rajagopalan as a Board Member, as the organization continues building durable cultural infrastructure rooted in Black and South Asian communities

We are living through a period of heightened polarization and social fragmentation, shaped in part by the afterlives of COVID-era isolation. Across geographies, people are searching for forms of connection that are grounded and durable.

BlindianProject believes it has an important role to play in this moment. As we look to scale, we are laying intentional foundations to build a cultural institution designed to last — rooted in care, accountability, and long-term stewardship.

Kavitha Rajagopalan is a journalist, author, and migration scholar whose work sits at the intersection of media infrastructure, immigrant communities, and democratic participation. Across journalism, academia, and nonprofit leadership, her career has focused on strengthening community-based media ecosystems—particularly those serving populations historically excluded from mainstream narratives and resources.

She founded the Asian Media Initiative (AMI) at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, the first national program dedicated to supporting in-language and community-based journalism serving Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in the United States. Under her leadership, AMI produced the first national map and directory of more than 730 AAPI news media outlets and published a landmark report tracing the evolution of AAPI journalism from the nineteenth century to the present. That report was released on the centennial of the 1924 Johnson–Reed Act, situating contemporary media struggles within a longer history of exclusion, migration, and resistance.

Through cross-initiative partnerships with Black and Latino media organizations, Rajagopalan has focused on strengthening community media ecosystems while expanding coverage of issues including gender-based violence, hate crimes, disinformation, and voter engagement. Her work emphasizes long-term capacity and sustainability—supporting not just individual stories, but the systems that make community-centered journalism possible over time.

An accomplished author, Rajagopalan wrote Muslims of Metropolis: The Stories of Three Immigrant Families in the West (Rutgers University Press), a finalist for the Asian American Literary Award, and is co-author of The Testing and Learning Revolution (Palgrave Macmillan). She has contributed to multiple edited volumes and anthologies, including Across Oceans and Waves: Asian Diasporic History, Politics and Disinformation (University of Washington Press) and Borders and Mobility in South Asia and Beyond (University of Amsterdam Press). Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, and The Atlantic’s CityLab, among other publications, and she has provided expert commentary for MSNBC, PBS, and Newsday.

Rajagopalan has worked as a journalist in the United States, India, and Germany, taught courses on global migration and writing at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs, and previously served as a senior fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs and the World Policy Institute. She holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a B.A. from the College of William & Mary, and is a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship.

As BlindianProject’s board continues to take shape, Rajagopalan’s experience in building media infrastructure, supporting community-led institutions, and navigating the intersections of migration, power, and storytelling will support the organization’s long-term governance and vision.

BlindianProject is committed to building slowly and intentionally—prioritizing care, accountability, and integrity as the work grows. We are grateful to be entering this next phase with Kavitha’s guidance and partnership.