Ruqaya Alfaris is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rowan University in New Jersey. Ruqaya is also a research assistant at the Center for Research and Education in Advanced Transportation Engineering Systems. She is currently working on several prestigious grants funded by New Jersey Transit, New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety, New Jersey Department of Transportation and others. Her research focuses on enhancing transportation safety and maintaining equity in transportation systems. Ruqaya has several published papers in prestigious journals and conference proceedings, and she has been selected as a recipient of several awards, such as the Intelligent Transportation Society of New Jersey's Outstanding Graduate Student Award, the Women's Transportation Seminar (WTS) Philadelphia Vision for Equity Award, and many others.
Ruqaya is an active participant in various extracurricular activities, such as serving as the president of the student board at WTS Philadelphia Chapter, and the Outreach/Fundraising Chair of the Graduate Student Association at Rowan Engineering College. She is also a member of several professional societies and committees, including ITE and ASCE.