Speakers

Dr. Lynda C. Davis was sworn in as the Chief Veterans Experience Officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on January 20, 2025. In this capacity, she will again provide executive leadership of a high-performing and collaborative team to apply the proven capabilities of Customer Experience (CX) data, tools, technology, and engagement across the Department to accountably improve the lives of Veterans and their families, caregivers, survivors and to earn their trust.

Dr. Davis previously served as the Chief Veteran Experience Officer in President Donald Trump’s Administration. During her prior tenure, the VEO team led the VA’s hardwiring of the Customer Experience (CX) framework, implemented Department-wide VSignals surveys for real-time customer feedback, launched the White House VA Hotline, and published the CX Cookbook, which has become a whole-of-government model for government application of CX.

Before her VA service, she was the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy (MCFP). At the Department of Defense, she also led the interagency initiative that improved case/care management for wounded, ill, and injured and transitioning service members in response to the Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors. This effort resulted in sustainable initiatives like the Recovery Care Programs and the National Resource Directory. Dr. Davis also addressed recruitment, retention, and retirement for sailors and marines as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Military Personnel Policy (DASN MPP) at the Department of the Navy.

Dr. Davis was the Executive Vice President of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) and the Executive Director of the Military and Veteran Caregiver Network (MVCN) in the non-profit sector. In the private sector, she was the CEO of a service-disabled veteran-owned small business focused on national security, education, employment, and health care.

Dr. Davis served as an Army Signal Corps officer and is a former clinician at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She held faculty positions within the Departments of Psychiatry and Public Administration at the University of Southern California, where she earned a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) and a Master of Public Administration after receiving her Master of Arts in Community Clinical Psychology.  She has served on  the advisory board of the Student Veterans of America, the Veterans Advisory Council on Rehabilitation (VACOR), the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, the Virginia Wounded Warrior Program, the National Council for Adoption and numerous other Military and Veteran Service Organizations in support of the community she is honored to be part of and serve. Dr. Davis also served as the Vice-Chair for the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Military Service (DACOWITS).

Barbara C. Morton assumed her current duties in July 2016 as Deputy Chief Veterans Experience Officer, Veterans Experience Office (VEO), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). In this role Barbara co-leads VEO, the Secretary’s customer experience (CX) insight engine supporting and enabling the Department in providing the highest quality experiences in the delivery of care, benefits and memorial services to Service members, Veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors. Barbara is responsible for building a lasting CX capability at VA and sharing best practices across sister Federal Agencies, including The Customer Experience Cookbook, which serves as a CX practitioner’s guide to stand up and mature customer experience capabilities in government. She is a recipient of the 2022 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Award for Management Excellence, 2021 Service to the Citizen Award for Government Executive of the Year, 2019 Service to the Citizen Award and the 2019 Gears of Government President’s Award for her role in transforming VA’s capabilities to provide Veterans with an excellent customer experience.

Barbara joined VA in 2006 as a Staff Attorney at the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board). She served the Board in a variety of other capacities to include Special Counsel to the Appellate Group, Special Assistant to the Vice Chairman, Executive Assistant to the Chairman, and Executive Director for the Office of Management, Planning and Analysis. While at the Board, Barbara stood up and led the Board’s Appeals Modernization OIT efforts, which included securing industry technologists from United States Digital Service to develop and launch new appeals platforms.

A native of Massachusetts, Barbara attended Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY, earning a degree in psychology and philosophy. After receiving her J.D. from Suffolk University Law School, Barbara completed two clerkships in the New England area and thereafter pursued an LL.M. in constitutional law at Georgetown Law. She has published a variety of law review articles, including two pieces relating to posttraumatic stress disorder.