BS CSC 1980

Graduating with her BS in Computer Science in 1980, Kathy served as a dynamic and influential leader and executive in Consulting and Healthcare IT healthcare in a successful career that spanned almost four decades.

With an IT career that started with an internship at IBM during her Junior year at NC State, she served in key leadership roles at IBM, KPMG, HCA and BenefitFocus. She may be best known for her accomplishments while serving as Vice President of Information Systems for Kindred Healthcare in Louisville, KY, a role she held for the better part of two decades. Kindred is the nation's largest full-service long-term care provider, and in this executive role, Kathy served as the point person for the IT strategy and the enterprise architecture plan supporting this $7 billion company, while achieving 17 years on the InformationWeek 500 for innovative, industry leading IT solutions. She also served as head of the Enterprise Project Management Office, IT Risk & Compliance and the IT Recruiting and Retention Committee for Kindred’s 300-employee IT organization. Kathy helped found the Louisville CIO Roundtable which allowed local companies to share technology innovations and was recognized as one of Louisville’s “Top 10 Women in Technology.”

While serving as Vice President of Information Systems at Columbia HCA in Nashville, the largest healthcare/hospital company in the country, Kathy played a key role in Columbia HCA being recognized as being number one on the InformationWeek 500 for innovative use of technology!

At Kindred and HCA, her close relationships with physicians, nurses and direct care givers provided Kathy an opportunity to help with automating the real-time decision process and getting healthcare professionals critical patient care information, faster and more accurately. Her understanding of the importance of the effective use of technology in the healthcare field, surely contributed to saving many people’s lives.

Kathy’s passion for patient care extends to her personal life, as she is a certified doula (labor support professional), where she has helped well over 100 expectant parents bring life into this world. She holds certifications to teach a variety of childbirth related courses ranging from Lamaze to Hypnobirthing. She is the co-founder and former President of Birth Care Network, a 22yr old non-profit professional network of childbirth professionals. She grew the organization to over 70 members and served as President for the first 5 years.

Throughout her career, Kathy has been a strong supporter and mentor to women in technology. To encourage more young women to enter and stay in the computer science discipline, Kathy served as a long-distance mentor for NC State's Women in Computer Science (WiCS) group for many years. She and her husband, Bruce, have also made significant donations to support the department's Diversity in Computer Science Endowment. While at Kindred, she supported women in her community through the Louisville Women in Technology organization and the Technology Network for Greater Louisville Region.

Kathy served on the Strategic Advisory Board for computer science departments at NC State and the University of Louisville. She was instrumental in advising universities to put an emphasis on developing strong written and verbal communication skills, as well as including courses appropriate to business especially project management in their computer science curricula.

Despite career moves across the southeast, Markham has long maintained ties to the Raleigh area and NC State University. Perhaps that helps explain why her sons Alan and Chris followed in her footsteps, earning a BS in Computer Science in 2004 and a BS in Electrical Engineering in 2006 respectively.

Kathy is enjoying retirement and while not traveling the world, lives with her husband, Bruce, on Daniel Island outside Charleston, SC. She and her husband Bruce are very involved in the local NC State Alumni Chapter, hosting game watches and participating in local alumni events. She continues to teach Lamaze and lead the local birth network, serves in a Titus 2 Mentoring group for young women, and helps maintain over 200 Blessing Boxes in the Charleston area.