Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute is pleased to welcome Dr. Lauren A. Smith as the third speaker in our 2020-2021 virtual distinguished speaker series Fostering Resilience for Our Children: From Birth Through Adolescence.

Equity and Childhood Resilience

Dr. Smith will discuss how the principles of equity can contribute to building resilience and overall wellbeing among children and youth.  The discussion will touch on ways structural biases, including systemic racism, generate and compound harm, as well as what kinds of approaches can be undertaken to address the root causes of inequities across children's experiences.  The presentation will take a strengths-based approach that recognizes the unique talent and potential of every child.

Lauren Smith, MD, MPH, is the chief health equity and strategy officer for the CDC Foundation. Smith brings more than 25 years working at the intersection of health care delivery and management, public policy and public health fields.

As chief health equity and strategy officer, Smith partners with the CDC Foundation's other senior leaders to develop and drive strategic efforts to embed health equity across the Foundation's COVID-19 response activities with an explicit focus on addressing systemic racism and its impact on vulnerable populations' resiliency amidst the pandemic. In addition, she leads activities to build organizational capacity to integrate health equity into the Foundation's practice, process, action, innovation, and organizational performance to elevate the importance of and deepen the Foundation's health equity impact. In this role, Smith serves on the Foundation's executive team. Smith will also serve as a principal advisor to the board of directors, the CEO and the executive team on the Foundation's overall strategic opportunities, risks and tradeoffs related to health equity strategy and implementation.

Smith joins the Foundation from FSG, one of the world's leading social impact consulting firms, where she served as co-CEO and led the firm's U.S. health practice. At FSG, she helped drive the vision and growth of the firm to advance its mission of achieving lasting and equitable social impact. In this role, she partnered with community, social sector, public sector, health care, public health and philanthropy leaders, including in place-based collaborations.

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.