Lauren A. Smith, M.D., a resident of Auburndale, Massachusetts, is vice president of Strategic Portfolios at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). Dr. Smith has more than 25 years of experience working at the intersection of the health care delivery, management, public policy, and public health. Prior to this role, she served as the chief health equity and strategy officer for the CDC Foundation based in Atlanta where she was pivotal in developing and driving strategic efforts to embed health equity across the organization's activities. She focused on addressing structural inequities affecting marginalized populations' health, wellbeing, and resiliency.

Dr. Smith's career includes leadership positions at FSG, a leading social impact consulting firm, where she served as co-CEO and led the U.S. health practice. Her visionary leadership contributed to the firm's growth and mission of achieving lasting and equitable social impact. Before FSG, she was senior strategic advisor for the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality. She has also served as medical director and interim commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, as the national medical director of the Medical Legal Partnership for Children, and as the medical director of the pediatric inpatient service at Boston Medical Center.

Dr. Smith is active in civic organizations and is on the board of several nonprofits, as well as the board of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. Dr. Smith is a graduate of Harvard College where she earned a degree in biology, before earning her MD from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, and an MPH from the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health.