OJ Oleka advocates for higher education policies at the state and federal levels that will lead to increased affordability and access to Kentucky’s independent colleges as President of the Association of Independent Kentucky Colleges and Universities (AIKCU).

He became President in November 2019. He previously served as Deputy Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, where he worked on policies that streamlined government, developed financial literacy standards for Kentucky schools, and protected the property rights of Kentuckians.

Oleka focuses on college affordability, social capital, and workforce development in his role at AIKCU. He is passionate about ending generational poverty through educational opportunity and economic mobility and is the co-founder of the AntiRacismKY coalition, which is a group of Kentuckians working to end any remnant of institutional racism in Kentucky.

Oleka graduated from the University of Louisville with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and a minor in Political Science. After graduation, he joined Teach For America as a middle school math teacher. Oleka has an MBA and a Ph.D. in Leadership in Higher Education from Bellarmine University.

He lives in Louisville with his wife Jamie and their daughter.

For more about him and the work of AIKCU, visit aikcu.org.