Featured Speaker(s)

Karen Davis is Senior Director, Information Systems, at the Research Triangle Institute, a multi-disciplinary contract research and development company with a staff of more than 2100. RTI’s Information Systems organization is responsible for all enterprise-wide business systems, including Finance, HR, Payroll, E-Commerce systems, and related websites.

Prior to joining RTI, Karen has worked with Data General Corporation, Kendall Company, Ford Motor Company, and Bethlehem Steel.

Her educational background includes an MS in Management, with a concentration in Information Systems, from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and Bachelor’s Degrees in Mathematics and English.

Teri Lewis is a Senior Account Executive at Keane, an IT Consulting and Applications Development firm. She joined Keane in 1991, and has worked as a sales executive for the past 12 years. She has represented Keane primarily to North Carolina state government agencies and has been responsible for expanding Keane’s presence in the local marketplace to become one of the leading IT consultancies in Raleigh.

Teri has had a sales and management career in Information Technology consulting for the past 18 years. Starting as a technical writer for Broadway & Seymour, Teri built a documentation services practice that served the Raleigh/Durham area from 1988 through 1991.

Over the past decade, Teri has generated revenue for Keane in excess of a billion dollars and has received Keane’s Pinnacle Club Award for quota achievement nine times.

Teri has BA's in English and Spanish from Appalachian State University, and an MA in English from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. In addition, Teri is a mother of three: a son 12, a son 9, and a daughter 6.

Carmen Mugge is currently the Director of Business Development in the Retail Stores Solutions division in IBM. She is responsible for growth strategies in the consumer service area.

Carmen has held a number of other leadership positions in IBM in areas ranging from hardware development to product planning and brand marketing, primarily in the PC field. Her previous responsibilities have included the Director of Development for Desktop, Visuals and Crossbrand Engineering; Director of Options, Visuals and Vendor Logo Hardware; Product Line Manager for Server Options.

Carmen joined IBM in 1981 after receiving a Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Virginia.

Ershela L. Sims is the Assistant Director of the Duke-UNC Brain Imaging and Analysis Center. The Brain Imaging and Analysis Center (BIAC) brings together scientists from throughout Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to find interdisciplinary solutions to fundamental research questions about the human brain. BIAC combines world-class technical facilities, including functional MRI and electrophysiological research labs, with a world-class faculty drawn from many educational disciplines.

Dr. Sims is responsible for managing several on-going technical and scientific projects at BIAC. Prior to joining BIAC, she worked for Nortel Networks in software development for 5 years.

She received her BSE from Duke University and her PhD from UNC- Chapel Hill; both in biomedical engineering. Dr. Sims is also a member of the collaborative CED, NCHICA, and NCTDA Healthcare Technology Forum Steering committee. The Healthcare Technology Forum provides a venue for exchange of ideas, sharing of knowledge and a support system for entrepreneurs and emerging companies in healthcare technology.

Cari Willis is the VP of ES e-business Service Delivery Support for Fidelity Systems. She manages an organization of over 70 HR professionals, programmers, and application support personnel.

Previously, Cari was with IBM where she spent 18 years as a Customer Services Manager, Information Development Manager, and a Human Factors Engineer. Cari has also been on the Board of Directors of the HR-XML Consortium for the last 3 1/2 years.

Cari is currently the leader of the Women's Networking Group in Fidelity for the Raleigh site. She was formerly President of the Women's Diversity Network Group for IBM in RTP.