Ajeenah Amir

Ajeenah Amir is a Philadelphia native and strategist passionate about equity, inclusion, storytelling and impact. As the Director of Civic Engagement and Community Partnerships for Penn Medicine, Ajeenah currently leads and creates civic engagement activities with community organizations and civic leaders, and provides strategic consultation and expertise for Penn Medicine entities, departments, faculty and staff, particularly in communication and relationship building with stakeholders about Penn Medicine projects and priorities.

Ajeenah was previously Director for the Mayor’s Office of Public Engagement in the City of Philadelphia. Within this role, Ajeenah developed and managed numerous and impactful public engagement strategies around key initiatives and Mayoral priorities for the City of Philadelphia, focusing on ensuring that communities who have not historically had a say in public policy are provided meaningful opportunities engage with government. Prior to this, she served as Deputy Communications Director for Mayor Jim Kenney and the City of Philadelphia, managing and advising the communications strategy for a broad portfolio of departments, including the Department of Planning and Development, Parks and Recreation, and the Office of Immigrant Affairs, and policy initiatives like the Philadelphia Beverage Tax. Ajeenah also previously served as Deputy Press Secretary for PA Governor Tom Wolf, and as Associate State Director for Communications with AARP Pennsylvania.

Ajeenah’s wide-ranging experience in strategic communications, community engagement, public affairs, project management and government relations was honed over almost 20 years through her work with nonprofits, public broadcasting, government and healthcare systems. Ajeenah earned her MS in social policy at the University of Pennsylvania and her BA in journalism from Howard University in Washington, DC.