Dr. Imani N. S. Munyaka is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, where she leads the Ujima Security and Privacy Research Lab. She is an affiliated faculty member of the Big Data and Analytics as a Service (BDaaS) Lab and the Design Lab at UC San Diego. Her research sits at the intersection of human-computer interaction, cybersecurity, and public policy, with a focus on improving the security and privacy experiences of marginalized and historically underserved communities.

Dr. Munyaka's work spans privacy and security for reproductive health technologies, voting systems, and AI-powered platforms, as well as bias and fairness in machine learning systems, technology policy, and community-centered security education. Her research has been published in leading venues including ACM CHI, USENIX SOUPS, ACM FAccT, and ACL. She is a recipient of the Hellman Fellowship (2025) and the Jacobs School of Engineering Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award (2024–2025). She has served on the organizing committees of RESPECT 2026 and the Workshop on Inclusive Privacy and Security (WIPS) at USENIX SOUPS in 2023 and 2024.

Beyond the lab, Dr. Munyaka is committed to technology access and civic engagement. She is the founder of a community volunteer initiative that maintains Food Pantry SD, a resource connecting San Diego residents to local food pantries, and serves as maintainer of More Than Code, a UC San Diego initiative expanding technology education and opportunity in the community.

Dr. Munyaka received her Ph.D. in Human-Centered Computing from the University of Florida, where she was a member of the Florida Institute for Cybersecurity Research and the Human Experience Research Lab, advised by Dr. Juan Gilbert and Dr. Patrick Traynor. She holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Dayton and an M.S. in Computer Science from Kentucky State University, a historically Black university.