Anjali Rameshbabu, PhD is a health and worker wellbeing psychologist with a focus on two highly preventable epidemics in our society - chronic illness and loneliness. Her research focuses on systems-focused approaches for social connection, health, and wellbeing, particularly integrating positive health behavior change and healthy work design interventions. She manages the Oregon Healthy Workforce Center and co-leads its Outreach Core.

Anjali’s global research has spanned the United States, Finland, Malawi, and India and her studies have included designing a health behavior intervention for custodial workers in the United States, examining the relationship between shift work, job stress, and health among call center employees in India, exploring the cultural context of HPV and cervical cancer prevention among women in Malawi, comparing educational strategies to increase HPV vaccine uptake in low-income populations in the US. More recently, she has completed a project to design work flow and organization to promote social connection and well-being among historically undervalued workers, with an available implementation-ready resource (below). She also completed a project in Finland where she investigated the socio-cultural and workplace drivers of social connection and loneliness, and shared the Total Worker Health approach from the United States.

Anjali has provided expert guidance to the Canadian Alliance for Social Connection and Health (CASCH) in developing the world’s first public health guidelines for social connection, the World Health Organization - Global Initiative on Loneliness and Connection (WHO-GILC) initiative on research and public health priority setting for social connection, and to the Foundation for Social Connection’s Work, Employment, and Labor Sector Report (WEL Report).

Deeply invested in cross-sector collaboration and mobilizing science for real-world impact, Anjali serves as Co-Chair of the NIOSH NORA Healthy Work Design and Well-Being Cross-Sector Council and is a founding member of the Work Stress Prevention Alliance, a cross-sector and interdisciplinary initiative focused on reducing stress and psychosocial hazards at work.

Dr. Rameshbabu's Google Scholar profile

Available resource:

• Promote social connection in your organization
• Building Social Connections at Work

Podcasts:

• Rameshbabu, A. (2026, January 22). Anjali Rameshbabu: Designing work to foster social connection and well-being (Season 3, Episode 3) [Audio podcast episode]. In Työ nyt ja tulevaisuudessa: Eväitä ajatteluun. Aalto University
• Rameshbabu, A., & Barton, M. (2025, October 9). Addressing the loneliness epidemic at work [Audio podcast episode]. In What’s work got to do with it? Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences.