About the Authors

Dannielle Joy Davis is a tenured Associate Professor of Higher Education at Saint Louis University. She is the first known African American woman (descended from skilled Mende, Temne, and Fula held in captivity) to earn tenure 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 Ghana, South Africa, Senegal, Egypt, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Belgium. Her interdisciplinary research examines the experiences of marginalized groups in educational settings, the role of organizational policy and practice in the promotion or inhibition of egalitarian academic and occupational outcomes, and spirituality in the workplace and other learning environments. Dr. Davis is the twice elected Chair of the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA’s) Spirituality and Education Special Interest Group (SIG) and has served within the leadership of AERA’s Qualitative Research SIG. She has published over 65 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 coeditor and a contributing author of the books Black Women in Leadership: Their Historical and Contemporary Contributions (Peter Lang), Social Justice Issues and Race in the College Classroom: Learning from DifferentVoices (Emerald Group), Intersectionality in Education Research (Stylus), Specialists: Passions and Careers (Universitas Press), and Motherhood in Precarious Times (Demeter Press). Dr. Davis has also served as associate editor for TheInternational 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 ofColorism Studies, and is Founder and Director of the community program, The Circle of Excellence Network.