Complete Story
09/12/2023
Keynote Speaker at MHOA Annual Conference
MHOA is pleased to announce our 2023 keynote speaker!
Lauren Smith, MD, MPH, is the chief health equity and strategy officer for the CDC Foundation, bringing more than 25 years working at the intersection of health care delivery and management, public policy and public health fields.
Smith partners with the CDC Foundation’s other senior leaders to develop and drive strategic efforts to embed health equity across the Foundation’s entire portfolio of work, with an explicit focus on structural inequities that affect the health, wellbeing and resiliency of marginalized populations. Her work has included COVID-19 response activities, promoting health equity through partnerships with state public health departments and community-based organizations and a focus on data equity.
Smith joined the Foundation from FSG, a social impact consulting firm, where she served as co-CEO and led the firm’s U.S. health practice. In this role, she partnered with community, social sector, public sector, health care, public health and philanthropy leaders, including in place-based collaborations. She has also served as the medical director and interim commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the medical director of the pediatric inpatient service at Boston Medical Center, the senior strategic advisor for a national innovation and improvement network focused on reducing infant mortality, the national medical director of the Medical Legal Partnership for Children, as well as state and federal government roles in the Office of Inspector General for the US HHS and as a policy fellow for the Massachusetts Speaker of the House.
Smith holds a BA with honors in biology from Harvard College, an MD from University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, and an MPH from University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health. She completed her pediatrics residency and chief residency at Children’s Hospital Boston and her general pediatrics fellowship at Boston Medical Center, Department of Pediatrics. She has published extensively in the peer-reviewed literature on health equity and the implication of social policies on child and family wellbeing. She has also served on numerous national and state advisory committees focused on public health and health care.
