Laura started her career in the voluntary sector, where she worked as a campaigner for the Multiple Sclerosis Society, leading the charity’s UK policy and campaigns team. During this time, she led a coalition of 80 patient organisations, improving how patients and the public are involved in decisions made by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

Learning how to affect change in neurological services led Laura to want to make a difference on a larger scale. She took up a position working as a senior advisor to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, leading several teams to review health service complaints data, convening system partners to better understand the problems and solutions, including working with parliament to hold the system to account.

Since then, Laura has worked in policy and strategy roles in the NHS, and in the USA. Working in translational research at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre, Nashville, Laura led an innovation start-up to pioneer new approaches to community engagement, increasing the diversity of clinical trials. She has since worked for the Chief Scientific Officer for the NHS, as an advisor at NHS Resolution, and more recently, on reform of the public health system across England.

Working in complaints and clinical negligence means Laura has a keen interest in improving patient safety. Laura combines her experience of working in policy, strategy, research and community engagement, to design, facilitate and extract actionable insights in rapid, novel and scalable ways that affect system level change. Laura has an MSc in Public Policy and is a qualified OD practitioner.

As a proud Cumbrian, Laura loves to be outdoors and enjoys trail running, travelling, and gardening. She is also a water colour artist and enjoys being creative.