Rifal Imam is the Rainproof NYC Fellow at Rebuild by Design, supporting strategy, research, and policy to ensure New York City’s equitably adapts to increasing have rainfall. Through her experience in multidisciplinary research, stakeholder engagement, and community outreach, she’s working on community education, stakeholder collaboration engagements, and systemic policy changes and implementation.

Rifal previously worked on various research initiatives including the Red Sea Net, where she supported the creation of a network of specialists across disciplines and institutions to enable a deeper investigation of how environmental transformations and political economies connect and shape the geopolitically-critical region of the Red Sea. She’s also leading her own project, Sally’s Club, a multidisciplinary creative-scholarly analyzing the effects of public history and the politics of memory on cultural heritage, from an individual to societal level. 

Rifal holds a B.A. in Social Research & Public Policy and a B.A. in Literature & Creative Writing, both from New York University Abu Dhabi. In her work she strives to find a balance between the “academic” and the “creative,” believing the two can work to bring a greater, more accessible, impact to the public. Her work often intersects art (particularly literature), politics, society, and culture.