Preeti Hehmeyer is the executive director of the Stanford Regulation, Evaluation, and Governance Lab (RegLab) at Stanford Law School. She oversees the lab’s strategy, operations, and partnerships with local, state, and federal governments to advance data-driven governance and the responsible use of artificial intelligence in the public sector.

Hehmeyer has spent more than a decade in leadership roles at Stanford University, building research collaborations that connect academic expertise with real-world policy challenges. Prior to joining RegLab, she served as managing director of the California Policy Research Initiative at Stanford’s Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), where she designed and led partnerships between Stanford researchers and government agencies on issues including tax administration, housing policy, and emerging questions around artificial intelligence and public-sector data use. 

Hehmeyer also served as assistant vice president in the Office of Community Engagement, where she advised university leadership on strategies for community-engaged research and helped launch Stanford’s first grantmaking program supporting collaborations between faculty and community organizations in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. She spent five years at the Bill Lane Center for the American West, where she directed operations and developed interdisciplinary research partnerships across Stanford’s schools to address regional challenges such as housing, climate adaptation, land use, and wildfire. 

Hehmeyer has served as a lecturer in Stanford’s Public Policy and Urban Studies programs, teaching project-based courses that connect students with government and nonprofit clients working on policy challenges ranging from housing production to climate resilience. 

Before joining Stanford, Hehmeyer worked in the public-sector consulting and auditing fields, advising cities and counties across California on performance management, operational efficiency, and policy implementation. 

Hehmeyer also has extensive experience in local government. She served two terms on the City of Mountain View’s Environmental Planning Commission, including as chair, contributing to land-use decisions and long-range planning initiatives that addressed housing development and regional growth. 

She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and city and regional planning from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master of public administration from the University of Southern California.