Alaa Zaher Q. Al-Ban is the chair of the interior design department and assistant professor at Dar Al-Hekma University. The decorated academic is also an adviser, consultant and expert for multiple national initiatives in the Kingdom. She has a multi-disciplinary design background in interior design, architecture and planning. Al-Ban was also the dean of Dar Al-Hekma University’s school of design and architecture from 2020 until 2021. Prior to her contributions to Dar Al-Hekma University, she was a partner and head of the interior design department at the Abdulkader and Abdullah Gadilbalban Co. for Trading and Construction, where she worked for nine years. She completed her Ph.D. degree in design and planning with honors in a record time of just three years at the University of Colorado, Denver, US. In 2010, she was awarded a master of fine arts degree in design from the California College of the Arts. She achieved a bachelor’s degree in interior design from Dar Al-Hekma University, Jeddah. Among some of her other achievements were receiving the Dar Al-Hekma Award for outstanding performance in both 2011 and 2019. She has also served as a jury member for the Jeddah Award for Creativity KSA in 2021, and the American University of Sharjah, in the UAE, in 2019. Al-Ban supported the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 reform plans by speaking at the INDEX Design Talks at the Riyadh International Convention and Exhibition Center, where distinguished guests discussed Saudi Arabia’s futuristic design and training the next generation of Saudi workers.