Director
She/Her
Karen Ramsey-Idem, Ph.D., serves as the global hydrogen regulatory leader for Cummins Inc., where she applies global codes, standards, and regulations to the company’s products and facilities. She collaborates with new product and technology development teams and the Cummins government affairs organization. Dr. Ramsey-Idem represents the company in the hydrogen council’s safety and regulatory committee and co-leads the Cummins hydrogen risk council.
Dr. Ramsey-Idem is the executive sponsor for the Society of Women Engineers within Cummins and is a co-leader for the Cummins Advocating for Racial Equity affordable housing team. She has been a member of the Cummins Pride employee resource group for the past 15 years and has had several leadership roles in Cummins, leading inclusion for its Technical Women Initiative for more than 10 years.
She joined Cummins in 1997 and has served in a variety of technical roles, including an ex-pat assignment in Pune, India, where she led the company’s design and analysis organization.
Dr. Ramsey-Idem holds a B.S., an M.S., and a Ph.D., all in mechanical engineering from Tennessee Technological University. She has a certificate in leading organizations in disruptive times (2023) from INSEAD and certificates in leading remote teams from Cornell University, scaling up excellence from Stanford University, and directing innovation from specialist to strategist from Smith College.
She is a certified Six Sigma green belt and sponsor and a trained facilitator for leadership development, unconscious bias, and inclusion dialogue.
Dr. Ramsey-Idem and her husband, Stephen Idem, an engineering professor at Tennessee Technological University, have three adult children, two children-in-law, and two grandchildren and reside in Cookeville, Tennessee.
Email: DirectorRamsey-Idem@swe.org
