Laura Espinoza-Pajuelo, MSc is a Peruvian researcher and project manager dedicated to translating scientific evidence into action to build more equitable and effective health systems. She currently serves as the Program Manager at the QuEST Center, Department of Medicine, Division of General Medicine & Geriatrics at Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to work at WashU, she worked as a Project Coordinator at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) in Peru and the Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy in Argentina, where she led the Non-Communicable Disease e-Cohort Project within the QuEST Latin America Network.
She played a pivotal role in designing and implementing studies that evaluate health system quality and accessibility in the LATAM region. Her research portfolio includes work on informal payments in healthcare, population perceptions of service quality, and systematic reviews of patient-reported experiences. She has also served as an educator in the School of Public Health at UPCH and contributed as an early-career researcher with The Lancet Commission on Cancer and Health Systems.
Laura has been recognized by CONCYTEC as one of Peru’s top young female scientists. In 2024, she was selected as an Emerging Voices for Global Health fellow, representing her work at the 8th Global Symposium on Health Systems Research in Nagasaki, Japan. A dreamer, but also a doer.