Today, you can say that Ramakrishnan is bringing ivory tower brainpower to the places that can apply it to solve real-world problems. Ramakrishnan serves on the board of The California Endowment, which seeks to improve healthcare and its affordability, and he’s also on the board of the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs. He directs the National Asian American Survey and is founder of AAPIData.com, which publishes demographic data and policy research on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. He also serves as director of the Inland Empire Census Complete Count Committee.

“It seems like a romantic notion, but if you can bring together people who want to do good things, either in government or in society and business, and people who have that expertise in research, you can build some pretty amazing things. It’s a romantic notion because politics matters, but the hopeful notion there is relationships matter,” says Ramakrishnan, who has made his home in the IE since 2005 with his wife and two children

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