Dr Vanessa Apea is a skilled clinician, speaker, and researcher with a wealth of experience in sexual health. For over a decade, she has served as a consultant physician in Genito-urinary and HIV medicine at Barts Health NHS Trust, and was a clinical lead for five of those years. In addition, Vanessa is an Honorary Senior Lecturer and the deputy academic lead for equality, diversity, and inclusion in the School of Medicine and Dentistry at Queen Mary University of London.

Vanessa is deeply committed to reducing healthcare inequalities and has devoted her clinical work to this cause. Her efforts have been recognized with an NHS 70 Windrush Award for her work toward improving health equity. She is widely known for her research into the barriers to healthcare engagement among marginalized populations, with a focus on participatory approaches and the intersection of race, gender, and health.

Vanessa is an active member of the London Fast-Track Cities Initiative's stigma subgroup, working tirelessly to eliminate HIV stigma in the city. She also serves as the medical director of NAZ, a charity that advocates for high-quality sexual health and HIV support services for racially minoritised communities. Vanessa is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and a Fulbright scholar with a Master's degree in Public Health from Harvard University.