Hitkarsh Kumar is the program manager for the James A. Baker III Policy Leadership Program. Kumar is responsible for strategizing and implementing operational plans to achieve the program’s objectives including curriculum development, recruitment, budgeting, fundraising, and event management. He also provides communications support to program participants and Baker staff.

Kumar earned an MA in philosophy from Rice University, following a BA in philosophy and bioethics from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Before joining the Baker Institute in 2024, he was a Ph.D. candidate at Rice’s Philosophy Department, where he is all-but-dissertation and on indefinite hiatus. His prior experiences include interning in college admissions, serving as a graduate teaching assistant for Rice’s School of Humanities, and working with Rice’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry and First-Year Writing Intensive Program. Kumar’s substantive academic interests lie in legal and normative ethics, value theory, and moral psychology.