The Lived Experience Lab

Meet Our Team

Dr. Anna-Maria Volkmann

Founder and Director

Dr. David Napier

Principal Consultant

Louise Hesseldal

Senior Consultant

Dr. Emma Boxley

Medical Doctor and Researcher

Wenqin Zhang

Global Project Manager/Researcher

Lillian Kerns

Junior Researcher and Communications Manager

Christy Quinto

Consultant

Ulrike

Consultant

Lillian Kerns

Junior Researcher and Communications Manager

Meet Our Team

Dr. Anna-Maria Volkmann

Founder and Director

Dr. David Napier

Co-founder

Louise Hesseldal

Senior Consultant

Dr. Emma Boxley

Medical Doctor and Researcher

Wenqin Zhang

Global Project Manager/Researcher

Lillian Kerns

Junior Researcher and Communications Manager

Christy Quinto

Consultant

Ulrike

Consultant

Karen Martirosyan

Fieldworker

Janelle Goh Shih Ying

Fieldworker

Chime

Fieldworker

Rachel Lacy

Fieldworker

Rachel Cheang

Fieldworker

Amita Khurana

Fieldworker

Daniela

Fieldworker

Dr. Anna-Maria Volkmann

Anna-Maria is a health psychologist and medical anthropologist with nearly 20 years of experience researching how social, cultural, and structural factors shape long-term health outcomes. Her work focuses on urban health, health vulnerability, resilience, and non-communicable diseases.

She currently leads ethnographic studies on the social determinants of health in New York City, Singapore, and Helsinki as part of the AI4HealthyCities initiative. She developed the widely implemented Health Vulnerability Assessment, a data collection and analysis instrument used to identify and address health risks in marginalized populations.

Anna-Maria has worked with major global organizations, including WHO, UNICEF, and private-sector partners, and has led large-scale projects such as the EU-funded SONAR_Global Vulnerability Assessments on COVID-19-related health vulnerabilities. She was also a founding member of the Cities Changing Diabetes programme (now Cities for Better Health).

Her research spans a wide range of topics, including living with chronic illness and disability, maternal and child health, and the health challenges faced by migrant and refugee populations. She contributed to the Lancet Commission on Culture and Health and serves as editor of the Culture and Health book series with UCL Press.

David Napier

Louise Hesseldal

 

Louise is an experienced professional in public-private partnerships, with a strong focus on global health collaborations, research, and community engagement. She spent over 12 years at Novo Nordisk A/S, where she played a key role in developing and implementing DAWN2, a 17-country study on the psychosocial aspects of diabetes. She was instrumental in shaping the Cities Changing Diabetes programme (now Cities for Better Health) and the Childhood Obesity Prevention Initiative. Today, Louise works independently, applying anthropological and ethnographic methods to design meaningful interventions, while expanding her expertise into biopsychology. She holds an MSc in Social Sciences from Copenhagen Business School.

Emma Boxley

Emma Boxley is a medical doctor and researcher with a master’s degree in medical anthropology from University College London (UCL). Her work focuses on health equity, social determinants of health, and access to medicines.

In addition to her research, Emma co-founded MindHealth, the award-winning UK charity dedicated to supporting medical student well-being, where she serves as Trustee and Chief Operating Officer. Her dedication to global health and mental health advocacy has been recognised with the prestigious Diana Award. Emma also serves as a Cohort Director at the Healthcare Leadership Academy, mentoring future healthcare professionals in leadership and navigating the complexities of modern healthcare.

Wenqin Zhang

Wenqin Zhang has a background in global health and international development, with expertise in research, project management, and stakeholder engagement. Her work focuses on understanding how social determinants of health shape health outcomes, with a particular interest in the intersection of health, gender, and migration. She currently manages the AI4HealthyCities ethnographic study across New York, Singapore, and Helsinki, coordinating research activities and stakeholder engagement to inform policies that promote cardiovascular health.

Wenqin has worked with Novartis Foundation, various United Nations agencies, NGOs and academic institutions, contributing to initiatives on digital health, health equity, and service accessibility. With experience in both qualitative research and program implementation, she is committed to designing and managing projects that drive meaningful change in public health and development. She holds a Master’s in Global Health from the University of Geneva and a Bachelor’s in International Politics from Fudan University.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2922-218X

Lillian Kerns

Lillian Kerns recently earned a Bachelor of Science in Health and Human Sciences from Durham University, where she was awarded an Academic Achievement Award in Integrated Anthropology. Her work focuses on health equity and the social determinants of health. She has conducted research on the experiences of young adults with type 1 diabetes in the United States and United Kingdom and explored how medical experts conceptualize race and racial diversity in clinical trials and health outcomes in the United States. Alongside her research, Lillian has been actively involved in a variety of extracurricular activities and leadership roles throughout her academic career, demonstrating a commitment to community engagement.

Our Fieldworkers

Karen Martirosyan

Fieldworker

Janelle Goh Shih Ying

Fieldworker

Chime

Fieldworker

Rachel Lacy

Fieldworker

Rachel Cheang

Fieldworker

Dr. Anna-Maria Volkmann

Anna-Maria is a health psychologist and medical anthropologist with nearly 20 years of experience researching how social, cultural, and structural factors shape long-term health outcomes. Her work focuses on urban health, health vulnerability, resilience, and non-communicable diseases.

She currently leads ethnographic studies on the social determinants of health in New York City, Singapore, and Helsinki as part of the AI4HealthyCities initiative. She developed the widely implemented Health Vulnerability Assessment, a data collection and analysis instrument used to identify and address health risks in marginalized populations.

Anna-Maria has worked with major global organizations, including WHO, UNICEF, and private-sector partners, and has led large-scale projects such as the EU-funded SONAR_Global Vulnerability Assessments on COVID-19-related health vulnerabilities. She was also a founding member of the Cities Changing Diabetes programme (now Cities for Better Health).

Her research spans a wide range of topics, including living with chronic illness and disability, maternal and child health, and the health challenges faced by migrant and refugee populations. She contributed to the Lancet Commission on Culture and Health and serves as editor of the Culture and Health book series with UCL Press.

David Napier

David Napier is Professor of Medical Anthropology at University College London and Director of its Science, Medicine, and Society Network. He has authored several books and articles on resilience, vulnerability, and health agency, and co-authored three Lancet commissions (Climate Change and Health, Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine, and Culture and Health, this last for which he served as lead author).

He specializes in addressing health vulnerability, having developed health vulnerability/resilience assessments and policy protocols in more than 50 countries for the UN, the WHO, and the European Commission, among others. Napier also served as Global Academic Lead for Cities Changing Diabetes, an initiative working to reverse diabetes and obesity in 42 cities representing the health needs of more than 200 million people. He and his research group recently worked with The Economist Impact Unit on its Health Inclusivity Index, developing for the first time global health inclusivity indicators and measurements. He is currently the ethnographic research lead on AI4Healthy Cities, while also completing a new book on social trust.

Louise Hesseldal

Louise is an experienced professional in public-private partnerships, with a strong focus on global health collaborations, research, and community engagement. She spent over 12 years at Novo Nordisk A/S, where she played a key role in developing and implementing DAWN2, a 17-country study on the psychosocial aspects of diabetes. She was instrumental in shaping the Cities Changing Diabetes programme (now Cities for Better Health) and the Childhood Obesity Prevention Initiative. Today, Louise works independently, applying anthropological and ethnographic methods to design meaningful interventions, while expanding her expertise into biopsychology. She holds an MSc in Social Sciences from Copenhagen Business School.

Emma Boxley

Emma Boxley is a medical doctor and researcher with a master’s degree in medical anthropology from University College London (UCL). Her work focuses on health equity, social determinants of health, and access to medicines.

In addition to her research, Emma co-founded MindHealth, the award-winning UK charity dedicated to supporting medical student well-being, where she serves as Trustee and Chief Operating Officer. Her dedication to global health and mental health advocacy has been recognised with the prestigious Diana Award. Emma also serves as a Cohort Director at the Healthcare Leadership Academy, mentoring future healthcare professionals in leadership and navigating the complexities of modern healthcare.

Wenqin Zhang

Wenqin Zhang has a background in global health and international development, with expertise in research, project management, and stakeholder engagement. Her work focuses on understanding how social determinants of health shape health outcomes, with a particular interest in the intersection of health, gender, and migration. She currently manages the AI4HealthyCities ethnographic study across New York, Singapore, and Helsinki, coordinating research activities and stakeholder engagement to inform policies that promote cardiovascular health.

Wenqin has worked with Novartis Foundation, various United Nations agencies, NGOs and academic institutions, contributing to initiatives on digital health, health equity, and service accessibility. With experience in both qualitative research and program implementation, she is committed to designing and managing projects that drive meaningful change in public health and development. She holds a Master’s in Global Health from the University of Geneva and a Bachelor’s in International Politics from Fudan University.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2922-218X

Christy Quinto

Christy Quinto provides writing support with an anthropological lens to The Lived Experience Lab. She holds a Master’s degree in Pacific Islands Studies from the University of Hawaii and a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Otago in New Zealand. Her ethnographic research and writing have focused on the lives of women garment factory workers in the Pacific Islands region, particularly in Fiji and New Zealand. She also received an MFA in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College in North Carolina. Her background includes lecturing in Anthropology at San Francisco State University and in Women’s Studies at UC Berkeley, supporting educational nonprofits with their publications and proposal writing, as well as many years in the book publishing industry assisting publishers in bringing their books to the marketplace each season. She contributes writing support to the lab’s website and grant-seeking efforts.

Lillian Kerns

Lillian Kerns recently earned a Bachelor of Science in Health and Human Sciences from Durham University, where she was awarded an Academic Achievement Award in Integrated Anthropology. Her work focuses on health equity and the social determinants of health. She has conducted research on the experiences of young adults with type 1 diabetes in the United States and United Kingdom and explored how medical experts conceptualize race and racial diversity in clinical trials and health outcomes in the United States. Alongside her research, Lillian has been actively involved in a variety of extracurricular activities and leadership roles throughout her academic career, demonstrating a commitment to community engagement.

Karen

Fieldworkers

Karen is currently pursuing a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) at NYU’s School of Global Public Health. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from St. John’s University and a Master of Public Administration from NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
During his time at NYU Wagner, Karen developed a strong foundation in health policy and health systems performance. As part of his Capstone Project, he collaborated with the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) to create rural Indian market-entry strategies for the GeneXpert Ultra, a next-generation diagnostic assay capable of detecting multidrug-resistant TB.

He also worked with leading faculty and health policy researchers on a project exploring intra-urban inequalities in Moscow, focusing on how socioeconomic and health system factors—particularly neighborhood effects—influence infant mortality.
Karen brings more than ten years of clinical research experience across academia and the pharmaceutical industry. At NYU Langone Health and Columbia University Medical Center, he managed several industry-sponsored clinical trials. Most recently, he served as a Research Project Manager in the Department of Population Health at NYU, where he was part of the Health Evaluation and Analytics Lab (HEAL). There, he oversaw research operations for an NIH-funded portfolio exceeding $10 million, and served as the regulatory liaison between the Institutional Review Board and external partners. In a previous role at Novartis, Karen worked as a Senior Global Trial Manager, co-leading the development of a Phase III immunotherapeutic trial for lung cancer.

Karen’s pursuit of the DrPH reflects his deep commitment to implementation science, urban health, global health, and health policy—with the goal of designing equitable, evidence-based health programs and policies that deliver lifesaving interventions in low-resource settings.

Janelle Goh Shih Ying

Janelle Goh Shih Ying is a student at the National University of Singapore (NUS), majoring in Landscape Architecture. Passionate about the relationship between environmental factors and human behaviour, she explores how well-designed spaces can transform communities. Janelle believes that underutilized areas can become vibrant environments that meet community needs, enhancing quality of life and fostering belonging. As an aspiring urban planner, she aims to create designs that enrich the lives of their users

Chime

Chime is a social worker and strategy professional with experience in community mental health, suicide intervention, and social service sector planning. Guided by a belief in more compassionate and equitable systems of social health and wellbeing, he seeks to link the human depth of social work practice with research and strategic foresight to reimagine healthier futures.

Rachel Lacy

Rachel Lacy has her BA in Theatre with a minor in Latin American Studies from Loyola University New Orleans and her MPH with a concentration in nutrition from Tulane University. She has worked as an actress, chef, nutrition educator, clinical research coordinator and, most recently as a Project Manager at the University of Virginia, with a focus on cancer prevention and control, specializing in Gynecologic Oncology. She believes that the best public health solutions are interdisciplinary and practical. She is currently getting her DrPH at NYU and is very interested in the “why” behind the data.

Rachel Cheang

Rachel is a community organiser who moves between the roles of educator, researcher, facilitator, and connector. Her work often resides in the in-between spaces: systems and stories, children and elders, the classroom and the forest. She primarily designs and curates spaces for collective learning, from environmental education with youth to nature-based play with children. In 2024, she produced “Moving Earth,” a short documentary that explores our relationship with land and soil-based farming amid rapid urban development.

Amita Khurana

Amita Khurana is a qualitative researcher with a broad interest in queer and South Asian, West Asian, SWANA (Southwest Asia and North African (SWANAAfrica) studies, as well as transnational and decolonial feminism. She holds a BA in Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies and Political Science from Barnard College and an MA in Sociology from Columbia University. She is currently an Assistant Research Scientist for the New York State Office of Mental Health. Amita is excited to use her research skills and passion for a just world to understand New Yorkers’ access to healthcare better.

Daniela

My name is Daniela, I’m 20 years old and originally from Brooklyn, NY. I’m currently a senior in college pursuing a BA/MA through my school’s accelerated program, which allows me to work toward both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology at the same time. With a strong passion for understanding human behavior, I’m focused on building a career in clinical psychology.

I enjoy engaging in research, as it allows me to explore new perspectives, contribute to the field, and deepen my understanding of mental health. My long-term goal is to combine my academic background with hands-on experience to make a positive impact in people’s lives through clinical work and continued research.