Margaret Laws

Margaret has distinguished herself as a catalytic leader in health care, forging cross-sector partnerships that drive positive social impact. At HopeLab Margaret leads a multidisciplinary team combining behavioral science, user-centered design and partnerships with innovative companies to create technologies and products that help people thrive. She is passionate about bringing together government, nonprofit and private-sector stakeholders interested in advancing the role technology can play in supporting and improving health and well-being, with a particular focus on improving care and outcomes for underserved populations.

Prior to HopeLab, Margaret spent 17 years at the California HealthCare Foundation in a number of roles, including Director of Public Financing and Policy and Director of the Innovations for the Underserved program. She also founded the CHCF Health Innovation Fund, a mission-focused fund investing in companies that improve access to and lower costs of healthcare. The Fund, launched in 2010, has now made investments in eleven early stage healthcare technology and services companies.

Prior to CHCF, Margaret served as a consultant and manager with Accenture, where she worked in both the government and health care strategy practices consulting to state health and human service agencies and healthcare payer and provider organizations. Margaret has also worked as a consultant with the Francois Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health, and for the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, providing technical assistance for nonprofits in developing countries. Earlier professional positions include consultant for the World Health Organization’s Global Programme on AIDS and caseworker and analyst for the Commonwealth of MA Department of Public Welfare.

Margaret holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and an A.B. in English Literature from Princeton University. She is a lecturer in management at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Margaret serves on the boards of the Health Initiative of the Americas, Health Leads and Project Glimmer and as an adviser to Omidyar Network, Peer Health Exchange, the Acumen US Fund, and a number of early stage health care services and technology companies.