Alia Poonawala

Executive Director, Hire Hopkins

Alia Poonawala is the Executive Director for Hire Hopkins a new department created to lead employer development across Johns Hopkins’ divisions and establish internship and employment pipelines for all academic departments and co-curricular communities. Alia coordinates a university-wide employer development strategy, dashboard, and technology to increase the diversity of employer representation at all divisions and departments. In partnership with senior leadership across the university, Johns Hopkins’ nine career centers, Johns Hopkins Tech Ventures (JHTV), Executive Education at Carey Business School, and Corporate Relations, Alia oversees data collection and analysis of employer engagement and hiring for all divisions, schools, and departments.

A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, Alia is a passionate business leader, startup mentor, and speaker. She most recently served as General Manager of Ironhack Miami, the #2 ranked coding and design bootcamp in the world. Under her leadership she was able to help Ironhack grow 10X in 5 years and form partnerships with companies like Facebook and Uber. Prior to leading Ironhack, she led sales and marketing at an edtech startup and coached senior executives at Santander, AMEC, and Walmart. Through Hire Hopkins Alia strives to ensure that all undergraduate and graduate students as well as postdocs within all nine divisions have access to great internship and employment opportunities in the US and around the world.