Management Team

Pastor Richard L. Davis – Executive Minister and Co-Founder of CEO, has extensive background in social justice and education.  Davis has spent his career in service to others, working with a variety of programs from restorative justice organizations to educational enrichment and improvement groups.  He has spent much of his career focused on reconnecting the church to the community.  Davis’ prior experience as a Chaplain and Clinical Counselor in the U.S. Army and Hospitals gave him many opportunities to develop his ability to work with people.  He is a skilled counselor in areas of anger management, substance abuse and addiction, with a strong emphasis on interpersonal and personal relationship resolution and empowerment.  

Before joining CEO, Pastor Davis spent several years as a Special Education teacher, providing supervision and instruction to children and adolescents coping with one or more challenges in their lives.  Many of the children were emotionally disturbed or learning disabled.  He has worked with a wide range of youth and adults with mental health issues, from the mildly retarded, to the autistic, to adults and youth with severe conduct disorders.  Later, he became a Behavior Consultant, where he was responsible for functional assessments, behavior program development, and competency based staff training in discrete trial training, prompting, prompt fading, differential reinforcement, functional communication training, and crisis intervention strategies. From those experiences, Davis brings to CEO not only a clear understanding of the “School Choice” movement, the partners active in the movement, but he also brings a clear understanding of the psycho/socio dynamic of the children and families we seek to serve. 

Davis is a graduate of Virginia Union University with a Masters of Divinity.  Davis’ holistic approach to leadership and social justice, coupled with his commitment to high academic excellence, has enabled him to develop excellent working relationships with pastors, community leaders, parents, and teachers all across the state.