Karen Davis (economist)
Karen Davis (born 1942) is president of The Commonwealth Fund, a national philanthropy engaged in independent research on health and social policy issues. Davis is an economist, with a career in public policy and research. Before joining The Commonwealth Fund, she served as chairman of the Department of Health Policy and Management at The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where she also held an appointment as professor of economics. She served as deputy assistant secretary for health policy in the Department of Health and Human Services from 1977–1980, becoming the first woman to head a U.S.  public health service agency. Prior to her government career, Davis was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., a visiting lecturer at Harvard University, and an assistant professor of economics at Rice University. A native of Oklahoma, she received her Ph.D. in economics from Rice University She serves on the Board of Directors of the Geisinger Health System. Davis was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1975, has served two terms on the IOM governing council (1986–1990 and 1997–2000), and was a member of the IOM Committee on Redesigning Health Insurance Benefits, Payment and Performance Improvement  Programs and the IOM Committee on Rapid Advance Demonstration Projects: Health Care Finance and Delivery Systems. She is a past president of the AcademyHealth (formerly AHSRHP) and an AcademyHealth distinguished fellow. She is a member of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured and is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Davis is a former member of the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ) National Advisory Committee and the Panel of Health Advisors for the Congressional Budget Office. Davis is also one of the best female backgammon players in the world, has served  on the United States Backgammon Federation board of directors and was elected to the USBGF Hall of Fame in 2020.