Joyce Davis

Director
Joyce Davis

Joyce E. Davis is a writer and communicator who has spent more than 25 years practicing the art of storytelling.

Davis is a proven and passionate media professional with deep experience in strategic communications, digital storytelling, marketing and content production – particularly as it relates to diversity, equity and inclusion. In July 2021, she became the inaugural director of communications for diversity, equity, inclusion and social impact at Pearson. In this role, she is responsible for developing and executing the external narrative of the social impact and sustainability journey of the world’s leading learning company, which serves hundreds of millions of learners in more than 200 countries.

Previously, Davis was the associate vice president for marketing and communications at Spelman College, where she oversaw the branding of the 140-year-old liberal arts, women’s college, which has been the No. 1 historically Black college for the last 15 years. Reporting to Spelman President Mary Schmidt Campbell, she led thought leadership development, executive and crisis communications, and the creation of high-quality content to launch strategic plans, announce fundraising goals, promote constituent accomplishments and communicate about progress in organizational change.

During her time at Spelman, Davis served as the chair of the Atlanta University Center Consortium Public Relations Council, leading collaborative marketing efforts of a team of communications executives from five historically black institutions: Morehouse School of Medicine, Morehouse College, Clark Atlanta University, Spelman and the AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library. At Spelman, she also helmed event productions, including virtual leadership and social justice events with former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, political pioneer Stacey Abrams and Patrice Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter; and the campus visit and Netflix filming with former First Lady Michelle Obama.

Davis began her career as a journalist. Having held positions at Fortune, Honey, Upscale, BET Weekend and Heart & Soul magazines, her work has appeared in Essence, Entertainment Weekly, Jet, Vibe, Black Enterprise, People, Ebony and Working Mother.

Prominent threads through Davis’ career are social justice, equity, diversity, inclusion and culture. As an author, she contributed to an anthology about people living positively with HIV, and as a journalist she penned an investigative look into Black girls and sex trafficking for Ebony magazine. A former co-owner of the public relations firm PowerFlow Media, she represented authors who wrote about women pioneers, disenfranchised voters and challenges facing young black executives in corporate America.

After serving on the Diversity, Equity & Justice and Marketing & Communications committees of The Friends School of Atlanta, she joined the board of Georgia’s only Quaker school, founded primarily to serve as a values-based model of diversity in education. She is the chair of the Decatur High School PTA Diversity Equity & Inclusion Committee, as well as a new board member of NextGen, which connects students from Title 1 high schools to mentoring and experiences that will lead them to successful careers.

Davis is a native of Decatur, Georgia, was educated at Howard University, and can be found across social media at @Enjoyceinglife.