Lauren Vela MBA

Ms. Vela is the Director of Health Care Transformation at Walmart, Inc. In this role, Lauren identifies opportunities to pilot and implement interventions that will improve the quality and affordability of healthcare for Walmart’s associates and communities.

Prior to this role, Lauren was a Senior Director for the Purchaser Business Group on Health (PBGH) and worked directly with large private and public healthcare purchasers to facilitate purchaser-driven healthcare improvement. Her work with PBGH over the years included focused efforts in pharmacy benefit management, avoidance of low-value care, health information exchange, and provider organization effectiveness.

Prior to the PBGH role, Lauren was the Executive Director of the Silicon Valley Employers Forum (SVEF), a coalition of high-tech employers that benchmark benefit designs and collaborate for improvement. She also worked in the mental health and workers comp fields doing product development, operations, marketing, and provider relations.

Lauren holds an MBA from the University of Houston and has completed all necessary coursework for her Dr.PH. with a focus on managed health care and health economics from the University of Texas.