Sheri Davis

Sheri Davis is the Executive Director with the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization (CIWO). In her seven years at CIWO, Sheri has served as Associate Director and, most recently, Co-Director for the center, building impactful programs and an incredible network of labor leaders across the country and the world. 

She is also Assistant Professor of Professional Practice with the Labor Studies and Employment Relations (LSER) Department in the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University (SMLR). She co-directs the WILL Empower (We Innovate Labor Leadership) program, a joint initiative with the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University with Dr. Lane Windham. As Co-director for WILL Empower, Davis hosts two Cohorts of Learning for women, nonbinary, and trans leaders, one focuses on emerging leaders and one for those in executive leadership roles. Prior to coming to Rutgers, she was the Director for the Westside Communities Alliance in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at Georgia Tech.

A native Atlantan and interdisciplinary scholar-activist, Davis completed her doctorate in American Studies in the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts at Emory University. She also holds a M.A. in Women’s Studies from The Ohio State University and B.A. in Psychology and Political Science from Spelman College. Her entry point into the labor movement was as a graduate student activist and leader at OSU during the CWA Local 4501 strike and thirty-day sit-in in 2000. Davis interned in the Field Mobilization division of the National AFL-CIO on the Global Justice Campaign; then as a Union Representative for university workers as well as a Grievance and Arbitrations Coordinator with SEIU District 82, Justice for Janitors Campaign. She successfully led collective bargaining campaigns at George Washington University and Howard University while serving as a Steering Committee member for DC Jobs with Justice. 

Davis led a Global Transformational Leadership Project surveying the needs of non-traditional leaders in worker justice organizations focused on their development process and support network. She has been a member of the Crunk Feminist Collective since 2009 and currently serves as board chair for the National Black Worker Center, is a steering committee member and faculty for the Advancing Black Strategist Initiative and fellowship program and supports the development of the Philadelphia Black Worker Center Project.