Laura Rafferty is a first-year MBA Candidate at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. Prior to Fuqua, she spent six years at UnitedHealth Group (“UHG”) and its subsidiaries in various finance, strategy, and business development roles. Most recently, she worked on the digital health partnerships team at Optum specializing in negotiating partnerships with Women’s Health companies. Before that, Laura served as the financial planning and analysis lead at an early-stage behavioral healthcare startup and UHG portfolio company, Sanvello Health. She began her career on the UHG Corporate Development team helping to execute acquisitions across a variety of healthcare sectors.
Laura is excited by the potential of using digital health and value-based payment models to improve care quality and access, particularly in the Women’s Health and Oncology categories.
At Fuqua, Laura serves as a Fellow for the Center for Health Sector Management and first-year Treasurer for the Health Care Club. She is also an Associate on Fuqua’s student-run impact investing fund, where she helps evaluate potential investments. Laura graduated magna cum laude from Carleton College with a B.A. in Economics and minor in Spanish. She is originally from Wisconsin and in her free time she enjoys running, hiking, and exploring Durham.
