Rate My Professor Anna Williams

Anna Williams is an Assistant Research Fellow in the Department of Primary Health Care, Dunedin, at the University of Otago, affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine within the Health Sciences Division. She earned a Bachelor of Technology in Food, a Master of Philosophy in Humanities, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Social Sector Evaluation Research from Massey University. Currently, she is pursuing a PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of Otago, supervised by Dr. Susan Wardell and Dr. Richard Egan. Her doctoral research investigates Pākehā journeys of wellbeing, exploring themes of identity, belonging, and connection in contemporary Aotearoa New Zealand. With over eight years of experience at the University of Otago, Williams specializes in community development adopting a participatory and empowerment lens, focusing on research that directly supports the needs and priorities of community members.

Williams contributes to primary health care research through collaborative projects. In 2025, she co-authored 'A qualitative study on the primary care research priorities of people in Southern Aotearoa New Zealand' with Sharon Leitch, Liza Edmonds, and Jing-Ru Li, which aimed to identify key research priorities from the perspectives of primary care patients in southern New Zealand and has been cited 11 times. She also contributed to 'The Southern Primary Care Research Network 3 years on' the same year, alongside Sharon Leitch, Wenna Yeo, Alesha Smith, Robin Turner, and others, assessing the network's development and impact over three years. Additionally, she participated in 'Establishing the research priorities of a national primary care research network in New Zealand: a Delphi exercise.' As a member of the Otago Centre for Medical Humanities, she bridges social anthropology and health sciences, enhancing interdisciplinary approaches to community health and wellbeing research.