Who is RICHARD H. DAVIS?

Richard is married to Carlyn Christy Davis and has three children. Born as "Richard Hughes" to Joe and Inez Hughes in Little Rock, Arkansas, he is the youngest of twenty children born to Inez and one of only three to finish high school. When he was five years old, he moved from Little Rock, Arkansas to Tyler, Texas with his mother and seven of his siblings. Although his mother had only a second-grade education, she worked very hard to provide for her children. Realizing the extreme hardship of rearing all of her children and the improbability of guaranteeing the best possible future for them, Richard's mother allowed him and several of his siblings to temporarily live with different families in the Tyler community.

In 1964 at the age of six, Richard moved to rural Tyler to live permanently on a farm with Napoleon "N. L." and Espanola Davis, two school teachers. When he was eighteen years old, his name was officially changed to Richard Hughes Davis. All four of Richard's parents have died, but as to the classic "heredity-versus-environment" argument, he attributes his natural potential to his genetic family and his social developmental success to the nurturing of his adoptive family.

N. L. was born in 1902 and taught high school in East Texas for forty-one years. Espanola was born in 1915 and taught school for thirty-eight years. They also reared Mary Evelyn (Davis) Norris, twenty-two years Richard's senior and a retired teacher of thirty-six years. Evelyn and her husband Herbert have seventy-three years of combined experience as public school educators. Between his parents and his sister and brother-in-law next door, Richard was influenced by 152 years of experience from school teachers.

Richard's professional destiny was almost inevitably to be an educator, and so he is. He holds a Master of Education degree in Educational Administration from The University of North Texas, a Bachelor of Science in Education degree from Baylor University, and an Associate of Arts degree from Tyler Junior College. Richard grew up understanding the critical importance of education, achievement, civic leadership, responsibility, and community advocacy. He has been a high school principal, teacher, and college instructor.

An expert in leading people, Richard created Davis Academic Project to provide professional consulting services to schools, businesses, and other organizations. He is a specialist on issues related to student leadership development, classroom management, team-building, organizational loyalty, positive parental involvement, bureaucratic effectiveness, and more. Richard has led educative teams and students to greater achievement through caring, effective leadership, a passion for excellence, and enthusiastic performance.

Richard is founder and president of PSL³ - Project Student Leaders, a student summit organization for "challenged but talented" youth. Visit www.PSL3.org. Richard is also a published author and keynote speaker on current trends and issues in education around the country. His most recent book, Time for Promotion, will be at press soon. His book Neocratic Education for the Students published by Outskirts Press, Inc. parallels Hurricane Katrina evacuees with inner-city students who also have storms flooding their lives.