Laura Stachel, M.D., M.P.H

Laura Stachel is a former medical doctor who founded and leads We Care Solar, a nonprofit that manufactures solar electric systems the size of a suitcase for use in medical clinics in the developing world.

Stachel practiced as an ob/gyn doctor after finishing medical school, but in 2002, pain from degeneration in the vertebrae in her neck forced her to quit delivering babies and eventually to leave clinical medicine. She went back to school to earn a masters in public health and began lecturing at UC Berkeley. In 2008, while studying for her doctorate, she traveled to Nigeria to study why rates of maternal mortality were so high. During that time she witnessed how lack of electricity directly affected health outcomes for women and infants during childbirth. Her husband, Hal Aronson, was creating solar education programs in the San Francisco Bay area. She asked if he could design a system that would target areas of the Nigerian hospital most important for maternal health. The solar electric system he created for the maternity ward, labor room, operating theater, and laboratory, helped the hospital achieve a 70% drop in maternal mortality the next year. Surrounding clinics began to ask for solar power, and Hal designed solar power for ob/gyn clinics in the developing world.

Hal designed a system the size of a suitcase to allow Laura to transport these to Africa. The Solar Suitcase had removable solar panels for mounting on the roof, a charge controller, a 12 volt battery, LED lights, and multiple outlets; the "Solar Suitcase" was eventually further developed to include phone chargers, a fetal monitor, and customized long-lasting LED lights. Stachel brought the first one back to Nigeria in 2009 and the clinic asked to keep it. Hal and Laura received further help from an engineer, Brent Moellenberg, and support from Bay area solar companies Everbright Solar and Holly Solar Products, to perfect the design and work out the manufacturing.

The couple then established the nonprofit, We Care Solar (formally WE CARE — an acronym for Women's Emergency Communication and Reliable Electricity.