The Health x Housing Lab at NYU Langone is committed to fostering the education and career development of future leaders at the intersection of health and housing and providing a platform to elevate the knowledge and expertise of people with lived experience of homelessness and housing insecurity. We offer a Summer Scholar and Consultant Program and operate a Speakers Bureau and Peer Network. We also host a variety of educational events.

Speakers Bureau and Peer Network

The Health x Housing Lab hosts a Speakers Bureau and Peer Network to shed light on the experiences of individuals who have faced homelessness or housing insecurity and the importance of housing for health. The group, comprising 10 members, provides opportunities for people with lived experience of homelessness to share their expertise through speaking and writing engagements and serves as a resource for people in academia, healthcare, journalism, and policy to engage speakers with lived experience of homelessness in presentations, panels, and other events. Learn more about the Speakers Bureau and Peer Network, as well as about the members and their areas of expertise or to contact the group. This project is funded by Trinity Church Wall Street Philanthropies.

Lab Scholar and Summer Consultant Programs

The Health x Housing Lab Scholar Program is a paid summer internship that aims to foster the career development of students (medical, social work, nursing, or other advanced degree students) dedicated to future work at the intersection of health and housing. In keeping with our core values, we seek applicants who are underrepresented in medicine, have lived experience of homelessness or housing insecurity, or both.

Our Summer Consultant Program is a paid position that offers training, bidirectional mentorship opportunities, and career development to a person with lived experience of homelessness or housing insecurity.

We are no longer accepting applications for the 2024 Lab Scholar and Summer Consultant Program. Please check back in January 2025.

2023 Lab Scholars and Summer Consultant

Eden Okopedeghe-Wetzel (she/her)
Graduate school: UCLA Fielding School of Public Health
Hometown: Hercules, California
Academic interests: health equity, street medicine/healthcare for the unhoused, and gerontology
Eden is a rising second-year MPH student studying community health sciences. She received a BS in neuroscience with a minor in gerontology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Eden strives to promote health equity and is an aspiring physician with a dedication to aiding underserved populations like older adults and the unhoused. In her spare time, she enjoys playing volleyball, dancing, reading, crocheting, and spending time with family.

Esin Bulut (she/her)
Medical school: FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine
Hometown: Ankara, Turkey/Los Angeles, California
Academic interests: health inequity, social determinants of health, and population health
Esin is a second-year medical student. She received a BS in biology from the University of California, Irvine, and an MS from Drexel University. Esin hopes to attend law school after completing her residency and use her medical and legal education to address social determinants of health and health inequities. In her spare time, she enjoys trying new recipes, helping asylum applicants, surfing, and playing with her four German Shepherds.

Constance Woodson
Education: Rockhurst University
Hometown: Kansas City, Missouri
Academic interests: criminal law, public health and affairs, legal compliance, and organizational leadership
Constance is a client advocate for the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City. She received a BA from Rockhurst University and in 2020, her story was published in Time magazine in an edition covering the COVID-19 pandemic and homelessness. In 2023, she was invited to join one of Mayor Eric Adam's public safety committees. In her spare time, she enjoys Pilates and yoga and is a long-distance walker. Constance loves to travel and make new recipes with fresh vegetables from the local New York farmer markets.

2022 Lab Scholars and Summer Consultant

Aprotim Cory Bhowmik
Kadisha Davis
Gabe Fuligni

2021 Lab Scholar

Joya Ahmad