Davina Faimon is a strategic operations, artificial intelligence, and data science executive whose career reflects a distinctive combination of analytical rigor, operational leadership, education, and human-centered development. With 27 years of professional experience, she has built her career around transforming complex challenges into practical strategies that improve performance, strengthen decision-making, and create measurable organizational value. Her expertise spans AI-driven decision systems, operational strategy and execution, predictive and prescriptive analytics, organizational optimization, leadership development, education, and enterprise transformation. Across each chapter of her career, Davina has maintained a consistent focus on helping organizations and people recognize opportunities, make informed decisions, and achieve ambitious objectives.
Davina’s professional foundation began in education, where she developed an enduring appreciation for the relationship between data, learning, leadership, and human potential. Her early career included work with Creighton University, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and Westside Community Schools, where she contributed to curriculum development, mathematics education, computer science instruction, and innovative learning initiatives. She designed data-informed instructional frameworks that improved engagement, contributed to successful educational pilots, taught hundreds of college students, and helped develop mathematics and machine learning coursework. These experiences established a leadership philosophy centered not simply on directing others, but on creating systems and environments in which people are equipped to perform at their highest level.
Her transition from education into data science represented a natural evolution of that philosophy. Combining her expertise in mathematics with an expanding focus on analytics, Davina developed the ability to examine organizations through multiple lenses: quantitative performance, operational effectiveness, organizational behavior, technology, and leadership. She earned a Master of Science in Mathematics with a Data Science emphasis from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, complementing her Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction from Doane College and Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education with a Mathematics emphasis from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. This multidisciplinary background has become one of her defining executive strengths, enabling her to bridge sophisticated analytical concepts with the practical realities of organizational adoption and execution.
Davina brought that combination of skills to CATCH Intelligence, where she spent more than a decade advancing data science, artificial intelligence, strategy, and organizational growth. As Director of Data Science and Strategy, she created and launched the company’s Data Science Practice and helped scale the team from two professionals to a high-performance team of data science specialists, leads, developers, and managers. Reporting to the CEO and serving on the leadership team, she contributed to decisions involving innovation, growth, operational direction, emerging opportunities, and enterprise strategy. Under her leadership, the practice delivered high levels of client satisfaction while expanding capabilities in areas including fraud detection, optimization, predictive modeling, prescriptive analytics, and AI-enabled decision-making.
Her record demonstrates an ability to translate advanced analytics into tangible business outcomes. Davina has led analytics transformation initiatives generating 20 to 30 percent cost savings through automation and workflow redesign, while data-driven strategies under her direction contributed to a 300 percent increase in project delivery. She implemented an AI-enabled client resource planning application and designed an enterprise optimization system focused on reducing client costs by $25 million annually. She also helped expand organizational expertise and product offerings in ways that contributed to a 25 percent increase in revenue. Rather than approaching AI and data science as isolated technologies, Davina views them as strategic capabilities that must be connected to business objectives, operational systems, leadership priorities, and measurable outcomes.
One of the most notable examples of Davina’s ability to apply data science to consequential challenges came during the pandemic. She developed and executed fraud-focused initiatives that became an important revenue pivot strategy and contributed to identifying she approximately $4 billion in potential fraud. Her contributions to fraud prevention efforts resulted in her being honorarily deputized. The experience illustrates a recurring theme throughout her career: an ability to recognize emerging problems, analyze them through a sophisticated quantitative lens, and mobilize teams and technology toward solutions with significant organizational and societal implications.
Davina has also developed a strong presence as a strategist, educator, and communicator on artificial intelligence and analytics. Her client-facing work has included leading AI envisioning and design engagements, facilitating cross-functional workshops, and helping organizations align technology adoption with broader business and change-management objectives. She has presented AI thought leadership to Department of Transportation audiences, Women in Technology of the Heartland, and participants in multiple live webinars. Her ability to communicate highly technical subjects in accessible, strategically relevant terms allows her to engage executives, technical specialists, educators, and operational leaders alike.
Continuous learning remains central to Davina’s leadership approach. She is pursuing the MIT xPRO Chief Operating Officer Program, with expected completion in November 2026, expanding her expertise in operational strategy, systems thinking, AI-enabled operations, optimization, organizational transformation, AI products and services, and AI-driven supply chain transformation. Her academic and professional accomplishments have also earned recognition, including an MIT xPRO Exemplary Assignment Award for Innovative Business Strategy, first place in the University of Nebraska Omaha Data Visualization Competition, the University of Nebraska Omaha Future Leader in Mathematics Education Award, and the Nebraska Association for the Gifted “Extra Mile” Award. These distinctions reflect the breadth of a career in which learning, innovation, and application have consistently reinforced one another.
As an executive and prospective board contributor, Davina offers organizations an unusual blend of research-informed thinking and real-world operating experience. She has participated in building a practice from its earliest stages, scaling teams, generating millions of dollars in revenue, identifying new market opportunities, advising senior leadership, designing enterprise solutions, and converting advanced analytical capabilities into practical results. Her data science background enables her to identify patterns, opportunities for optimization, and emerging risks, while her leadership and educational experience helps her consider how strategies will affect the people responsible for implementing them. She is particularly interested in helping organizations determine how artificial intelligence can be adopted meaningfully, responsibly, and effectively to create genuine enterprise value.
Davina’s approach to board service is grounded in collaboration rather than prescription. She values bringing different perspectives and possibilities to the table, examining them carefully, and helping leadership teams determine a path that advances organizational objectives efficiently and thoughtfully. She is a big-picture strategist who can simultaneously examine the underlying data, systems, processes, and human considerations that influence an organization’s performance. Industry agnostic in her interests, she brings a perspective applicable to organizations navigating growth, operational transformation, AI adoption, analytics modernization, talent development, or strategic change.
At the heart of Davina’s work is a genuine commitment to helping people and organizations achieve their goals. Her guiding philosophy—“Leadership is about empowering others to achieve their highest potential”—captures an approach shaped by nearly three decades of education, analytics, operational leadership, and strategic execution. She believes that effective leadership combines confidence with curiosity, rigorous analysis with empathy, and ambitious strategy with the discipline required to execute. Whether developing people, scaling a business capability, advising executives, designing AI-enabled systems, or contributing at the board level, Davina seeks to create clarity from complexity and turn opportunity into meaningful, measurable progress.
Character:
Davina leads with curiosity, collaboration, integrity, and a sincere commitment to helping others reach their highest potential. Her career demonstrates a willingness to embrace complex challenges while remaining focused on the people, teams, and organizations affected by the decisions she helps shape.
Knowledge:
She brings a multidisciplinary knowledge base encompassing artificial intelligence, data science, mathematics, operations, organizational transformation, education, optimization, and leadership development. Her combination of advanced academic preparation and extensive practical experience enables her to connect research and emerging technologies with the realities of enterprise execution.
Strategic:
Davina sees organizations through both a big-picture strategic lens and a rigorous analytical framework, allowing her to identify opportunities for optimization, growth, innovation, and improved decision-making. She has repeatedly converted strategic ideas into measurable outcomes, from scaling teams and generating revenue to reducing costs, increasing delivery performance, and developing enterprise AI and analytics solutions.
Communication:
With the ability to translate complex technical and quantitative concepts into clear, relevant insights for executives, clients, boards, technical professionals, and learners. Her experience presenting AI thought leadership, facilitating cross-functional discussions, teaching, and advising leadership enables her to build alignment and move diverse stakeholders toward shared objectives.
