Elevating
Lived Experience
to the Level of Evidence

10K+

Satisfied Patients

Safe Places

Quality Life

Our Mission

Advancing Health, Well-Being, and Health Equity Through Lived Experience

Advancing Health, Well-Being, and Health Equity through research

We are dedicated to improving health and equity worldwide by uncovering how social, cultural, and environmental factors shape human well-being.

Building knowledge through lived experience

We center the voices of those most affected, using their stories to guide meaningful, relevant, and impactful research.

Assessing the Wider Determinants of Health

By investigating how everyday conditions shape health, we help communities and cities make the healthy choice the easy choice.

Our Ethos
Relational Research for Equitable Health 

Our Team and Our Collaborative Network

We are an international and interdisciplinary collective of researchers, bringing together expertise in anthropology, psychology, medicine, global health, and related fields. This diverse team is driven by a shared passion for understanding health inequities and the barriers to health and well-being.

We believe that research is most powerful when rooted in relationships, and collaboration is at the heart of our ethos. We actively engage with core partners in research projects. We place a high value on co-creation and on cultivating lasting collaborations. Over the past two decades, we have built strong, supportive, mutually beneficial relationships with our research partners. We also share knowledge and expand our reach and impact through our wide network of affiliate partners.

Our Approach

Mixed Methods, Community Engagement, Meaningful Insights

Integrating Data and Lived Experience

We employ a rigorous mixed-methods research approach, combining quantitative data with in-depth qualitative interviews, ethnographic observation, roundtables, and focus group discussions, complemented by thorough desk research. Our focus on lived experience allows us to understand the human stories underlying the quantitative data, providing a nuanced and comprehensive view of health disparities, ultimately fostering more effective and culturally sensitive interventions.

Partnering with Communities for Relevance and Sustainability

Community engagement is essential to our research projects. Our team excels at data collection, but our work goes far beyond that to cultivating lasting relationships with stakeholders. We collaborate closely with local community partners in the design and implementation of research, ensuring that our findings can be translated into policies and programs for efficient and equitable resource allocation.

Identifying Obstacles to Health and Well-Being

Assessing vulnerability through innovative and collaborative research is central to what we do at The Lived Experience Lab.

Innovative and Collaborative Data Collection

We utilize innovative tools alongside thorough desk research to efficiently assess the scale and distribution of health concerns within.

Deepening Understanding Through Lived Experience Research

We go beyond gathering quantitative data to exploring the lived experiences.

Synthesizing Data for Actionable Recommendations

We synthesize diverse data and lived experience insights into actionable recommendations.

What We Do

Assessing Vulnerability Through Innovative and Collaborative Research

Our Locations

Selected Projects

Cities Changing Diabetes

Funder: Novo Nordisk (Denmark)

Location: 47 cities globally including Copenhagen, Houston, Mexico City, Tianjin and Shanghai

Themes: Urban health, diabetes, chronic disease, social vulnerability, health equity

AI4HealthyCities

Funder: Novartis Foundation (Switzerland)

Location: New York, Singapore
, Helsinki

Themes: Urban health, cardiovascular disease, social determinants of health, artificial intelligence, ethnographic research, health equity

SONAR-Global: COVID-19 Vulnerability Assessments

Funder: European Union Horizon 2020

Locations: Global (Bangladesh, Uganda, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Malta, the Netherlands, UK)

Our Team

Core Team

Dr Anna-Maria Volkmann

Dr. Anna-Maria Volkmann

Founder and Director, Lived Experience Lab

David Napier

David Napier

Louise Hesseldal

Louise Hesseldal

Wenqing Zhang

Wenqing Zhang

Emma Boxley

Emma Boxley

Lillian Kerns

Lillian Kerns

Our Partners

Work with Us

Opportunities for collaboration and engaging the team’s services

News and Updates

Get In Touch With Us

Contact Info

Phone Number

01234567-890

Email

info@email.com

Follow Us