About us
Kohlrabi began when our founders, Fran, Jo and Aradhna, were PhD students asking:
"why should good quality research be limited to academia?"
In 2019, we imagined a research consultancy built on collaboration rather than hierarchy
where expertise is shared, diverse perspectives are welcomed, and evidence is
created with people, not just about them.
Today, that belief shapes everything we do. We partner with organisations across the public, private and third sectors to deliver research that is scientifically rigorous, genuinely collaborative and designed to make meaningful, real-world impact.
Dr Jo Blodgett
Co-founder & Co-director
Jo leads our quantitative and review workstreams. Originally from Canada, Jo moved to England ten years ago before completing her PhD at UCL in Epidemiology and Public Health. Jo splits her time between consulting and academia, sharing best practices between the two sectors. She is particularly passionate about wellbeing, physical activity, women's health and research methodology. Outside of Kohlrabi, Jo loves to spend her time outdoors playing football or cycling.
Dr Fran Harkness
Co-founder & Co-director
Fran leads our evaluation and public dialogue workstreams. Fran has a PhD in Epidemiology and Public Health from UCL, and years of applied research experience in the NHS and local communities. Fran is skilled in building ethical relationships with a range of different groups to enable dialogue data collection, co-design and co-production. Her research strengths are designing creative methodologies for data collection and sharing our findings to different audiences. At home, Fran must be so fun that her children can’t wait to wake her up daily at 5am!
Dr Evelyn Kim
Research Consultant
Evelyn is a qualitative researcher taking a policy lead at Kohlrabi. With a PhD in Comparative Education Policy from the UCL Institute of Education, she balances her time at Kohlrabi with a Lecturer position at UCL. Evelyn brings vast experience in planning and managing complex evaluations, having led and contributed to several projects aimed at synthesising and evaluating evidence for policymakers in health and well-being. In her spare time, Evelyn enjoys sunbathing with her cat and finding new pubs to enjoy a Guinness in.
Dr Katie Tiley
Research Consultant
Katie is a quantitative researcher at Kohlrabi. She recently completed her PhD in Infectious Disease Modelling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Katie is skilled with data analysis in R and Python, project management, and liaising with international stakeholders across government, industry and academia. Katie’s work with Kohlrabi allows her to pursue a passion for high-impact projects with practical applications. Aside from work, Katie enjoys reading queer horror and wild swimming; her most exciting swim was 3 miles between the islands of St Kitts and Nevis in the West Indies with turtles and sharks!
Pragya Roy
Assistant Research Consultant
Pragya is a researcher exploring the intersection of social and health inequalities. She is finishing her PhD at the University of Sheffield and has a background in medical sociology. Her research spans health inequalities across different settings, including caste inequalities in reproductive and maternal health in South Asia and ethnic inequalities in dementia in the UK. Pragya is committed to advancing socially- and culturally-informed public health research and enjoys using innovative qualitative and mixed-methods approaches to better understand and address health inequalities. Outside work, she loves watching films and writing detailed reviews on Letterboxd, mostly for herself.
Yaning Wu
Assistant Research Consultant
Yaning supports the Kohlrabi team with rapid reviews and public consultations. She is concurrently reading for a PhD in blood donor health at the University of Cambridge and trained during her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in epidemiology and quantitative research, including in statistical coding with R. Yaning has been fortunate to work, too, in the charity, startup, and academic sectors and continues to develop her skills in communications, design, and stakeholder engagement. Outside of her day and evening jobs, she enjoys connecting with others through voluntary work and making both silly and socially conscious art.
