Karen Davis, Ph.D., is president of The Commonwealth Fund, a national philanthropy engaged in health and social policy research.  Previously, she served as chairman of the Department of Health Policy and Management at The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where she was also a professor of economics. She was deputy assistant secretary for health policy in the US Department of Health and Human Services from 1977-1980.  Prior to that, she was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a visiting scholar at Harvard University, and an assistant professor of economics at Rice University.  Among many other honors and awards, Dr. Davis received the AcademyHealth Distinguished Investigator Award in 2006 and was honored by the Institute of Medicine with the Adam Yarmolinsky Medal in 2007. She is on the Board of Directors of the Geisinger Health System and Health Plan, is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.