Lauren Smith, MD, MPH, Appointed Vice President of Strategic Portfolios at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

PRINCETON, N.J.—The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) announced today that it has named Lauren Smith, MD, MPH, as the vice president of Strategic Portfolios. Smith comes from the CDC Foundation, where she served as the chief health equity and strategy officer, bringing more than 25 years of extensive experience at the intersection of healthcare delivery, management, public policy, and public health. She will officially join RWJF on March 25, 2024.

In this role, Smith will serve as a member of the Foundation’s senior leadership team and will oversee strategy development, implementation, and management of RWJF’s key focus areas, or strategic portfolios, which include Healthy Children and Families, Healthy Communities, Leadership for Better Health, and Transforming Health and Healthcare Systems programs.

“I am thrilled to welcome such a skilled leader and strategic thinker to the Foundation,” said Julie Morita, MD, executive vice president of RWJF. “Lauren's work has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to advancing health and racial equity, addressing social determinants of health, and leveraging systems change to improve health and opportunity for all.”

In her prior role with the CDC Foundation, Smith 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.

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, Smith 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.

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.

About the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is committed to improving health and health equity in the United States. In partnership with others, we are working to develop a Culture of Health rooted in equity that provides every individual with a fair and just opportunity to thrive, no matter who they are, where they live, or how much money they have.