Dr. Karen Davis
Dr. Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund, will be the guest of the Department of Public Health as the 2003 Lorraine and Ralph Lubin Visiting Professor (April 15-16). Dr. Davis will present the David Rogers Health Policy Colloquium on the topic "Creating Consensus on Coverage Choices: Leadership Roles for Academic Institutions" on April 16 in Weill Auditorium at 1 p.m. Dr. Davis will also be hosting a series of meetings with faculty, students, and residents during her visit.
A nationally recognized economist, Dr. Davis became president of the Commonwealth Fund in 1995. The Fund is a national philanthropy engaged in independent research on health and social policy issues. Before her appointment as president of the Fund, Dr. Davis served as chairman of the Department of Health Policy and Management at The Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and 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 to 1980, and was the first woman to head a U.S. Public Health Service agency.
A native of Oklahoma, Dr. Davis received her doctoral degree in economics from Rice University, which later recognized her achievements with a Distinguished Alumna Award in 1991. Dr. Davis is the recipient of the 2000 Baxter-Allegiance Foundation Prize for Health Services Research. In the spring of 2001, she received an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Davis is the author of several books, monographs and articles on health and social policy issues, including "Health-Care Cost Containment'; "Medicare Policy"; "National Health Insurance: Benefits, Costs, and Consequences"; and "Health and the War on Poverty."
The Lorraine and Ralph Lubin Visiting Professorship in Public Health was established with a gift from Dr. Madelon Lubin Finkel, professor of public health, in memory of her parents. The Lubin Visiting Professorship brings important, timely issues in health care to the attention of students and faculty at the Medical College. Funds from the professorship support an annual lecture by a prominent speaker on significant public health policy.