Anya qualified in Medicine from the University of Oxford and subsequently pursued specialist training in older adult psychiatry. In 2017 she completed a DPhil in Psychiatry based on the MRC-funded study "Predicting MRI abnormalities with longitudinal data of the Whitehall II Substudy".

Her current research, based in the Neuroimaging Statistics group at the Big Data Institute, uses population neuroimaging to study the impact of risk and resilience factors on psychiatric and cognitive disorders of later life. A particular interest is the association of alcohol consumption, a lifestyle factor which is widespread and modifiable, with adverse brain outcomes including dementia. As a practicing clinician she hopes her research will ultimately yield benefits in dementia prevention.