Ima has a Bachelors of Human Science (Hons) in Political Science and Islamic Revealed Knowledge & Heritage from the International Islamic University Malaysia. She later obtained her M.A. in International Studies and Diplomacy from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK. She is currently a Ph.D Candidate in Political Science at the School of Political, Social and International Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.

She has worked in the Office of Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald as an APSA - Asia Foundation Congressional Fellow and has worked as a Library Assistant for the Norfolk County Council in the United Kingdom. She is currently the Program and Communications Manager of The Habibie Center, which she joined in 2000, shortly after its establishment.