Senior Advisor for Digital Promise
Dr. Baron Davis is currently the Senior Advisor for Digital Promise. As the former superintendent of Richland School District Two in Columbia, SC, where he served as the first Black superintendent in the district’s 90-plus-years history, Dr. Davis is a trailblazer for public education with over two decades of experience.
Prior to joining Digital Promise, Dr. Davis was a nationally-recognized member of the Digital Promise League of Innovative Schools, having been selected from a competitive pool of applicants based on the district’s leadership, evidence of results, innovative vision for learning, and commitment to equity and collaboration. In 2021, he was selected by his peers to serve on the League’s advisory committee. Notably, as superintendent Dr. Davis prioritized increasing teacher diversity and developing the next generation of education leaders of color by launching the Premier 100 initiative, which recruits, retains, and elevates male teachers of color in Richland Two classrooms. He also serves on the advisory board of the Learner Variability Project.
Dr. Davis has broad and extensive experience within the K-12 education landscape, having served as a successful school leader in rural, urban, and suburban school systems where his schools were recognized for closing learning gaps, increasing graduation rates, and increasing Advanced Placement participation rates.
Dr. Davis’ support of education and his community spans across his educational career. He is a founding member of the AVID Center Superintendent’s Collaborative, whose mission is to close the opportunity gap by preparing all students for college readiness and success in a global society. He has served as a principal mentor and coach for induction principals participating in the South Carolina Department of Education’s Office of School Leadership Principal Induction Program.
Since 2018, he has been named the 100 Black Men of Greater Columbia Educational Leader of the Year, earned the Francis Marion University Professional Industry Award for Education and Arts as well as the Columbia Chamber of Commerce Cathy Novinger Trailblazer Award. AASA, The Superintendents’ Association, awarded him the Dr. Effie H. Jones Humanitarian Award; Education Week named him a Leader to Learn From for Leadership in Equity; and K-12 Dive placed him on their Superintendent to Watch list. K-12 Dive also named Richland Two the 2021 School District of the Year. He has received the Bob Grossman Leadership in School Communications Award from the National School Public Relations Association for implementing communications strategies to better serve parents, students, community partners and employees.
Dr. Davis is a Columbia native, where he currently resides with his wife, Pamela, and his three daughters.
