Davis, Karen

Karen Davis is the president of the Commonwealth Fund, a large New York City–based, private foundation that promotes healthcare. Davis is a nationally recognized health economist, with an extensive background in health services research and public policy.

A native of Oklahoma, Davis was born in 1942. Davis earned a bachelor's degree (1965) and a doctoral degree in economics (1969) from Rice University in Houston, Texas. She started her career as an assistant professor of economics at Rice University, teaching from 1968 to 1970. In 1970, she left the university and became a research associate at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. In 1974–1975, while on leave from Brookings, she was a visiting lecturer on economics at Harvard University. She returned to the Brookings Institution as a senior fellow. In 1977, she was appointed deputy assistant secretary for planning and evaluation (health) in the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In 1980, she became the first woman to ever head a U.S. Public Health Service agency when she became the administrator of the Health Resources Administration. Davis served as the administrator until the end of the Carter administration in 1981. From 1981 to 1992, she was a professor at Johns Hopkins University. She served as chairman of the Department Health Policy and Management at the School of Hygiene and Public Health from 1983 to 1992. In 1992, she left the university to become the executive vice president of the Commonwealth Fund, and in 1995, she became its president.

Throughout her career, Davis has served as a member of numerous healthcare boards and committees. These include the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Health Advisory Panel; National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine (IOM); Board of Directors of the Geisinger Health System Foundation; Baxter-Allegiance Foundation Prize for Health Services Research Election Committee; Council on the Economic Impact of Health Care Reform; Health Care Executive Forum; President's Council, Health Policy Forum, United Hospital Fund; and Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

Davis has authored or coauthored six books, numerous reports, and more than 100 journal articles. Her most recent publications address issues such as access to healthcare, the healthcare problems experienced by the uninsured, various state and national healthcare reform efforts, and the overall performance of healthcare systems.

Davis has received numerous awards and honors for her work. She received the Picker Institute Annual Award for Excellence in Patient-Centered Care and, in 2006, the Academy Health Distinguished Investigator Award. She was made an Alpha Omega Alpha Honorary Member in 2001. She was awarded an honorary doctorate in [Page 287]humane letters from Johns Hopkins University in 2001. She was given the Baxter-Allegiance Foundation Prize for Health Services Research in 2000. And she received the Rice University Distinguished Alumna Award in 1991.