The 2026 New York Festivals Health Awards has chosen its inaugural Human Lens: The Lived Experience Specialty Jury. 

This Specialty Jury will be led by co-chairs, Jordan and Anna Rathkopf, co-founders of RATHKOPF, a patient and caregiver-led strategy and storytelling studio. Drawing on their own lived experiences with cancer and caregiving, as well as their professional expertise working with creative agencies, pharmaceutical and life sciences companies, and advocacy organizations, the Rathkopfs will lead the review of work that puts lived experience at the heart of healthcare storytelling.

Their passion for this work drove them to advocate for a category recognising a type of healthcare storytelling that has been hiding in plain sight for years – campaigns where lived experience isn’t simply represented but actively shapes the work itself. Their experience across the healthcare landscape revealed the need to recognise work that goes beyond authentic representation to meaningfully involve patients, caregivers, and communities in the creative process.

What distinguishes Human Lens: The Lived Experience is not just the subject matter, but the process. New York Festivals Health and the Rathkopfs are looking for stories made with people, not simply about them. The category recognises work that gives patients, caregivers, and communities a meaningful voice in shaping how their stories are told – from the earliest stages of strategy and ideation through production and beyond.

The 2026 Human Lens Specialty Jury brings together creative leaders, patient advocates, storytellers, and social impact experts whose perspectives span both professional expertise and lived experience. Together, they bring an unusually multidimensional lens to work that asks us to see the person, not simply the patient, at the center of healthcare storytelling. 

2026 Human Lens: The Lived Experience Specialty Jury:

Jordan and Anna Rathkopf, Co-Founders of RATHKOPF – Co-Chairs

• Anneliese Barron, Head of Social Impact, Lea Pictures
• Glenn Batkin, Creative Director, Independent
• Walter T. Geer III, Chief Creative Officer
• Jana Jarosz, VP, Creative Director, OLIXIR New York
• Clay MacGuire, SVP, Creative Director, 21Grams
• Dina Peck, Founder, The Narratology Lab™️
• Elyse Spatz Caplan, Strategic Advisor, Patient Advocacy & Empowerment
• Eason Yang, Founder / Creative Director, Not Entirely Dead

The Specialty Jury will review shortlisted entries through final judging, selecting the work that best reflects the vision and purpose of Human Lens: The Lived Experience.

“We’re thrilled to welcome these exceptional industry leaders and passionate creatives to judge this important new category,” said Jennifer Vizina, executive director of the New York Festivals Health Awards. “Human Lens: The Lived Experience gives the industry a way to recognise a powerful shift in healthcare storytelling, one that puts real people and their lived experiences at the center of the creative process. We’re proud to honour work that gives those voices the influence and recognition they deserve.”

The official deadline to enter the 2026 NYF Health Awards is September 23 with a final deadline of October 22. Find more information on the competition, including rules, categories, and entry details, here.