Eli Marshall Davis, Special Education Resource Teacher at Richland School District 2 in South Carolina
Eli Davis is a dedicated special education teacher and Ph.D. student at the University of South Carolina, where he researches healing from historical racial traumas. Passionate about social justice and working with predominantly Black and Brown students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, Mr. Davis creates transformative relationships with his students and colleagues. He also develops student leadership groups and employs a growth mindset, guiding his pedagogical practices with behavioral epigenetics and healing.
Before Eli Marshall Davis became a Special Education Resource Teacher at Jackson Creek Elementary, he held numerous positions in diverse educational settings, such as serving as a Lead Special Education Teacher at Inglenook K-8 in Birmingham, Alabama and a Graduate Internship as Assistant Principal at North Division High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Davis has received several awards and honors for his contributions, such as the 2022 Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad Program in Nigeria, the 2018 Teacher of the Year award at Lincoln Heights Academy in Charlotte, NC, and the 2016 Outstanding Teacher award at Hillside High School in Durham, NC.
Davis’s scholarship research interests center on social justice in special education classrooms and epigenetics, exploring the understanding of historical trauma and its implications on school-dependent students. He has shared his insights through numerous presentations, such as “Actualizing the Special in the Special Education of African American Children” at the Center for the Education and Equity of African American Students and “Epigenetics and the Education of Black Folk: Looking to the Past to Gain Insight into the Future” at the University of South Carolina-Columbia.
