Autumn Rain, PhD

Name pronunciation: AW-tum Rayn | Pronouns: she/her/hers

Dr. Autumn Rain is the deputy chief of staff and administrative manager for the Office of Global Inclusion (OGI). Previously, she was a visiting assistant professor in the NYU Department of Social and Cultural Analysis. Dr. Rain came to NYU from the College of William and Mary as a senior research associate and former associate director of the Institute for Historical Biology (IHB). At the IHB, she served as a skeletal biologist and research consultant on the NY African Burial Ground Project and co-director of the Remembering Slavery, Resistance, and Freedom Project, a state-wide initiative of the Virginia General Assembly’s MLK Commission. Dr. Rain has taught courses in anthropology, gender and sexuality studies, Africana studies, American studies, metropolitan studies, and world studies. She was honored to receive the NYU Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Faculty Award in 2019.

Dr. Rain's early professional roles included senior account executive for McGuire Woods Consulting and statewide program manager for the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services, leading an initiative to increase children’s access to healthcare through cross-sector partnership building, state-wide training, and media campaigns. She earned her PhD and MA in Anthropology from the College of William and Mary, and her BS in Psychology and BA in History from Virginia Commonwealth University.