Karen Davis

Karen M. Davis, Business Group Chief Information Officer and Vice President of RTI’s Research Computing Division (RCD), was hired by RTI in 1999 to set a vision and strategy for RTI-wide business systems and establish an Information Systems (IS) organization to execute the plan. Ms. Davis and the IS organization were instrumental in the selection, design, integration, and implementation of multiple business systems required to support RTI’s growth. Since 2005, Ms. Davis has led RCD within the Social, Statistical and Environmental Sciences (SSES) research group; the division employs over 150 technology professionals working on projects for RTI’s clients.  Under Ms. Davis’ leadership RCD’s contributions to RTI’s mission have increased substantially. Achieving this result involved continuing to provide technology support to other divisions and units at RTI while expanding the portfolio by successfully pursuing technology-based projects that require RCD leadership. Since 2017, Ms. Davis has also been named CIO for SSES, in addition to continuing to lead RCD. In this role, she is taking the lead in ensuring that RTI’s IT strategy aligns with SSES’ business strategy.  Ms. Davis has been a project director on multimillion-dollar projects and has received RTI’s project management certification. She has been a senior advisor on many of RTI’s projects, including having taken a lead in systems security, including working with clients on requirements for systems compliance with FIPS-moderate.  Ms. Davis’ education includes Bachelor’s degrees in Mathematics and English, and Master’s degree in Management, with a concentration in Information Systems.