Sima Kumar
Cohort 4 Alum - 2024-2025

Sima Kumar is a New Jersey educator and mother whose advocacy helped shape state education policy. She testified before the New Jersey Assembly and Senate Education Committees in support of the AAPI curriculum bills signed into law by Governor Phil Murphy on January 18, 2022.

Sima is also a published writer; her article in the NJEA Review, “Asian American in America’s Literary Heritage,” examined the invisibility of Asian and Asian American literature and history in K–12 curricula. In it, she proposed pedagogical approaches for building more inclusive curricula that reflect today’s increasingly multiracial and multiethnic classrooms.

She serves as a board member of The E Pluribus Unum Project (TEPUP), a grassroots coalition connecting and mobilizing communities across New Jersey to transform education in ways that honor the state’s pluralistic society.

Sima has moderated public dialogues exploring Asian American and Pacific Islander experiences, including a Princeton Public Library event featuring poet Alison Roh Park and filmmaker Angel Velasco Shaw. She has also been a guest speaker for the Center for Future Educators program at The College of New Jersey.

A lifelong learner and advocate for representation in education, Sima holds a B.A. from Smith College and an M.F.A. from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and she is currently pursuing an Ed.D. at Rutgers University.