Biography
Dr. Dannielle Joy Davis (Arme Iye) is a tenured Full Professor of Higher Education at Saint Louis University. She is the first known African American woman (descended from skilled captive Mende (of the Mali empire), Temne, Fula, and indigenous Sioux and Cherokee people in the United States) to earn tenure and full rank in the history of the institution’s School of Education. A graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, she has studied and conducted research in South Africa, Senegal, Egypt, Togo, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Cuba, and Ghana. Her interdisciplinary research examines the experiences of marginalized groups, research ethics, STEM education, community engagement, AI use in pedagogy, home education, and spirituality in the workplace and other learning environments. Dr. Davis is a twice elected Chair of the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA’s) Spirituality and Education Special Interest Group (SIG) and has served as part of the leadership team for AERA’s Qualitative Research SIG. She is a member of the national Black Lives Matter in Research Working Group and has published over 70 refereed journal articles, book chapters, volumes, academic commentaries, and reviews. Dr. Davis is Series Editor of the Information Age Publishing book series, Contemporary Perspectives on Spirituality in Education, where she coordinates and leads guest editors and authors from
around the globe in the development of scholarly volumes. She is Editor or Co-Editor and a contributing author of the books: Black Women in Leadership: Their Historical and Contemporary Contributions (Peter Lang Publishing), Social Justice Issues and Race in the College Classroom: Learning from Different Voices (Emerald Group Publishing Ltd.), Intersectionality in Education Research (Stylus Publishing), Specialists: Passions and Careers (Universitas Press), Motherhood in Precarious Times (Demeter Press), and United We Stand: The Role of Spirituality in Engaging and Healing Communities (Information Age Publishing). Dr. Davis has also worked as Associate Editor for The International Journal of Religion and
Spirituality in Society and Learning for Democracy: An International Journal of Thought and Practice. She has served as Vice President of Professional Development for the National Girls and Women of Color Council, as a Leadership Team member with Sisters of the Academy Institute, on the Editorial Review Board for the Journal of Colorism Studies, and is Founder and Director of the community program, The Circle of Excellence STEM Network where she consults Black homeschooling families. She is also a Research Team Lead for the NSF funded initiative, iEMBER: Inclusive Environments and Metrics in Biology Education. A “Society for Science and the Public” Advocate Awardee, Dr. Davis is also an Associate Investigator & Affiliated Faculty with the SLU WATER Institute and a CREST Research Center (Culture, Religion, Ethics, Science, Technology) Community Scholar. She is a second-generation homeschooling parent and a Queen Mother within the Black community.