Dr Melvina Woode Owusu is the founder of Purple Pen, a public health research and evaluation consultancy. Her interest in how cultural backgrounds shape believes about health led her to study medical anthropology as a degree and epidemiology in HIV. After her PhD and more than a decade of leading national public health programmes at Public Health England, Melvina decided to found her own consultancy to work in areas of her interest, to exercise her creativity and to stay close to family.