Kumiko Endo

About Kumiko Endo

I study how people connect, build trust, and change, and I work on technologies that extend our capacity to do so in meaningful, human-centered ways.Trust and human connection have been the through-line across everything I have done, from my PhD research on relationship formation, to ethnographic fieldwork in Japan and the U.S, to eight years of teaching across three universities, and now to co-founding an edtech company at the intersection of AI and human connection.At Med2Lab, I lead partnerships with healthcare institutions across four continents and develop AI-powered training that helps clinicians communicate in ways that truly resonate in practice.In parallel, I collaborate with Haheho AI as a behavioral scientist, where I lead research on voice-based health monitoring for older adults in Japan. This work has been recognized as a 2026 HIMSS Emerge finalist and is forthcoming in JMIR Aging.Across both areas of work, I am guided by the belief that when AI is designed with care, it should support and deepen human connection rather than replace it.I am a qualitative sociologist by training, which means I pay close attention to how people actually experience the world, not only what they do, but why they do it and what it means to them.I welcome conversations about work that brings people closer together, builds trust, and addresses the many communication gaps that still shape our society.

Experience

1. Co-founder & COO

   Med2lab

   Apr 2021 — Present · Washington, DC, US

Education

• The New School

  Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Sociology

• Columbia University

  Bachelor of Arts - BA

• Soka University of America

  Bachelor of Arts - BA, Social and Behavioral Sciences