Karen Davis: podcast appearances and interviews

Karen Davis is the co-founder and head dress wrangler of Clover’s Closet. She is a former president of The Commonwealth Fund, a national philanthropy focused on independent research related to health and social policy issues. With a background in economics, Davis has had a distinguished career in public policy and research, including serving as the chairman of the Department of Health Policy and Management at The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and holding an appointment as a professor of economics there. She served as deputy assistant secretary for health policy in the Department of Health and Human Services from 1977 to 1980, becoming the first woman to lead a U.S. public health service agency. Davis has held positions as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a visiting lecturer at Harvard University, and an assistant professor of economics at Rice University. She earned her Ph.D. in economics from Rice University. Her professional involvement extends to serving on the board of the Geisinger Health System and being elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1975, with two terms on its governing council. She has contributed to several IOM committees related to health care reform and innovation. Davis has also served as president of AcademyHealth and is a distinguished fellow of the same organization. She is a member of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured and an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Outside her professional pursuits, Davis is recognized as one of the top female backgammon players worldwide, having served on the United States Backgammon Federation board of directors and been inducted into the USBGF Hall of Fame in 2020.