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.
Dr. Michael Conner
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening from wherever you are. Thank you for tuning into another episode, our first episode in April for Voices for Excellence. I’m your host, Dr. Michael Conner, CEO and Founder of the Agile Evolutionary Group and also the host for VFE. And I wanted to have a spring special today. This is not an April Fool’s joke, but we have the best, I consider, listen, I’ve been following Dr. Baron Davis from when I was a chief academic officer and assistant superintendent. Like I said before, you hear about national superintendents who are doing the work and this brother, Dr. Baron Davis… when when I was a superintendent… Now, we’re on panels, we’re doing a lot of national stuff. You saw the work that he was doing down in South Carolina and I’m just truly, truly appreciative. One of the most unapologetic and bold leaders across the country, where he just won last year a huge, huge award from AASA recognizing all the leadership that he has done within this role and just recently became, I believe, and please correct me, Dr. Davis, an advisor for Digital Promise, which again, is an extraordinary achievement and accomplishment, specifically the work that Jean Claude Brizard is doing out of Digital Promise. So without hesitation, yes, I got him virtually in flesh, Dr. Baron Davis, this is your first spring edition of Voices for Excellence. Happy April. Dr. Davis, how you doing, brother?
Dr. Baron Davis
I’m doing well my brother, happy April to you as well, Michael. And I appreciate that introduction. That’s very humbling man to hear stuff like that but I’m just trying to be about the work but I appreciate all that you’ve done in this field as well and you continue to push us forward and make sure that we’re having these serious critical conversations around the things that are impacting the educational experience for all students. So thank you, man, for your commitment and your courageousness as well.
Dr. Michael Conner
Man, I appreciate that coming from you. Baron, we see each other across the country a lot of the times and we talk and we just engage in that. But I really appreciate hearing from you and especially coming from a leader like yourself. Those words just mean the world to me. But let’s get into the interview and the conversation, because now I want my listeners… and I try to use this podcast as more of a mechanism for professional learning in an asynchronous manner where they can go back and forth, listen to the answers, go deep into it, even bring out their individual strategic plans or plans to be able to just kind of get that acceleration right or maybe get that new strategy that they might need. So really just unwrap your unbelievable intellectual knowledge around leadership, Dr. Davis. But the first question is a fun question. And when my stakeholders, when they first encounter or I should say, when stakeholders in general first encounter you, whether they’re listening to you speak nationally or engage in one of your articles or blogs that you have written, or even a facilitated session with aspiring or existing superintendents, Dr. Davis, what song describes you and your leadership in this education space when someone first engages with Dr. Baron Davis? What song comes to mind?
Dr. Baron Davis
And that’s a tough question. And I know that being a hip hop head and kid growing up, born in the 70s, of course growing up in the 80s and so being around for the invention and evolution of hip hop is still primarily a source of inspiration for me. And I had just tons of songs kind of come through that.I look at those songs like soundtracks of your life. And so everything from Eric B and Rock Kim, I ain’t no Joke.
Dr. Michael Conner
Wait, wait, wait, wait. Stop right there. Dr. Davis, I Ain’t No Joke, yes. That describes Dr. Baron Davis. Oh, please go on brother.
Dr. Baron Davis
To Big Daddy King’s, I Get the Job Done and so there’s just a number of songs that come to mind, Don’t Sweat the Technique, Let the Rhythm Hit ‘Em, all that good stuff man. But if I had to pick one of them, I’m a big Eric B and Rock Kim fan growing up and for me it’s really how can I move the crowd.
Dr. Michael Conner
Absolutely.
Dr. Baron Davis
Because when we do this work, that’s what it’s about. My work is about moving the crowd, moving the consent, the consciousness of those of us, the collective consciousness of us that work in education. So how can I move the crowd? And first of all, ain’t no mistakes allowed. And being a man of color, being a black male in these leadership roles, I know that. But I know I have to create a rhythm and a beat that everybody can vibe to and bop to. But also the idea is to move us forward. And so I would say that would be the one that I kind of settled on. And I thought about that question, how can I move the crowd?
Dr. Michael Conner
Yeah, how could I move the crowd? But listen, I love that choice. But Dr. Davis, I’m going to tell you, you ain’t no joke. And I do love that. Oh, now, whenever I see you, Baron, I’m just going to be like, listen, Baron, that right there, hands down, I thought I had the baddest song – Super Bad by James Brown. Oh, that describes you, Dr. Davis. But it’s good getting people engaged. Because everybody knows when you speak, you command that type of… you have that type of voice that commands the room to be engaged. So, I mean, this is just at a really now a critical juncture. We need leaders like you to be able to engage the masses so we can continue moving this work forward. But I really love it. I Ain’t No Joke, I Get the Job Done, Don’t Sweat the Technique. Baron, that is you, brother. I appreciate it. But really with the the whole concept of how we can get people strategically engaged. But I want to move to the second question. And again, like I stated from the outset, and this is the truth, Baron, you are one of the most respected education leaders in the country. I mean, your reputation for just improving conditions for students and learning environments for students have been adopted and emulated by many across the country. I seen people using your strategies all over. But, as executive leaders start to continue to raise– continue this work of raising expectations through the system’s work around culture change, I think you’re a culture expert. What advice or strategies would you give leaders who are ready to embark upon this difficult work of changing cultures so that now we can be able to move through the oppositions at all tiers?
Dr. Baron Davis
Yeah, I think, of course, one of the primary, I would say primary things is be strategic in the work like give some thought to what it is that you want to try to accomplish. Because if it’s about changing systems or if it’s about uprooting a deep rooted, systemic and systematic practice, and particularly being rooted in race and racism, then you’re going to have to be able to be strategic about the steps that you’re going to take and then you’re going to be tactical. You got to have not only a strategy, but now how are you going to implement that strategy? I think you have to be prepared to get a little scraped and scarred up a little bit. So don’t go into the situation thinking it’s gonna be all rainbows and roses. And I know that sounds like common sense, but really, I’ve seen people who try to put things in place that kind of challenge the status quo and are really shocked by the push, the pushback and the blowback from members of their communities or even within their own organizations and systems. So you got to have some sense of understanding that that’s going to happen. And so you need to be prepared and mentally ready for that. I think…keep purpose over preference to understand what the purpose is of the work that you’re doing so you don’t get caught up too much in your own personal preferences of how you want to see it done. If the purpose can be accomplished without your trust, your preference, then acquiesce towards the purpose of what is being done and and be able to clearly articulate what your just cause, that’s what’s going to be able to sustain you. Simon Sinen talks about the differences between a just cause and a why and about the why being rooted in the past. That got you here. So what’s going to sustain you and keep you moving forward is the just cause, not the why. So focus on, understand and articulate your just cause and then work toward accomplishing that.
Dr. Michael Conner
Absolutely. And Dr. Davis, you articulated this in this lucid manner where our system is rooted in racism and we have to be strategic and tactical in order to be able to dismantle some of those historically systemic elements of racism that we know exist within our teacher learning organizations. But two things that resonated with me are purpose over preference and just cause over why. And that’s taking it really to that next level of thinking, of looking at or examining your culture to make those strategic changes or tactical changes around culture. But I want to get into another question with your new role.
You started this new role at Digital Promise. Congratulations, my brother, Dr. Davis, truly, truly happy for you. And now you’re going to be working with great educators, colleagues and a friend, Jean Claude Brizard in this role, but as a senior advisor of digital promise, I believe a Chula Gupta, she’s a part of that group. And in the press release, I want to read a quote where she specifically stated that your hire was at this critical time specifically to be a part of the League of Innovative Schools. Now, for my listeners, one, what is Digital promise? The League of Innovation of Innovative Schools, and two, what’s your new role? How is your expertise going to be leveraged to be able to support superintendents in the league of Innovative Schools?
Dr. Baron Davis
I think one of the easiest way to explain what the League of Innovative Schools or let me say, explain what digital promises is it’s a national nonprofit. And I would you say it’s a global nonprofit at this point. But it is a place where there’s an intersection between practitioners, researchers and tech experts, where we come together to create innovative solutions to solve some of the most pressing issues in the space of education, with a focus and an understanding on the importance of those students and those participants in this education experience who have been historically excluded from receiving an outstanding, world class, premier educational opportunity experience. We want to give and create the conditions where opportunities are present for them, and are ever present for them. And it takes really creative solutions to be able to do that. And this intersection is a very powerful intersection of some of the most innovative and collaborative people in the field of education. And so whether they’re the practitioners, the researchers or even the solution providers or edtech experts and professionals, it’s just a phenomenal space to be in because it’s super, it’s just so productive and collaborative and so solution focused. So I love that about the opportunities there. Working with them as senior advisors, I primarily really have three roles and one is of course supporting the new initiatives of the CEO and President Jean-Claude Brizard wherever those initiatives and whatever those new initiatives may be on. Also helping to be somewhat of a, I think, partner for him as he continues to move the organization forward on. The second is working with the League of Innovative Schools in Charlotte and helping to really craft some of the the League of Innovative Schools Priorities and develop those priorities that support league superintendents. And so that’s part of the league convenings and helping being a part of developing and drafting and creating very engaging and collaborative and innovative and solution focused convenings for superintendents, working with the advisory board and committee of superintendents that support the league and then also helping with new membership, whether it is recruiting, mentoring programs, or other support in that role. And then the last is focusing and working with Kim Smith and the Center for Inclusive Innovation. And I’m primarily working with her around strategic planning for the Center for Inclusive Innovation, helping to establish and build its first advisory board, and then also helping and advising the Center for Inclusive Innovation on District and Community engagement efforts. And that will kind of constitute… and the various other things that may come up throughout the course of the year. I will help anywhere I can in supporting those initiatives.
Dr. Michael Conner
Great, great, great. And you’ve got your, I should say, plate full with a lot of different things within that role of senior advisor. You’re continuing the great work, really pushing the the current traditional trends that we’re seeing nationally and great job with that. But also, I want to get into you being a founding member of the Avett Center Superintendents Collaborative and your mission is to close the opportunity gap by preparing all students for college readiness and success in a global society. But we’ve seen achievement based off the LTT assessment that NAPE administers where achievement outcomes have declined. I don’t like to look at this purely from an achievement metric standpoint, but nationally we’re seeing this and then also preparing students for Delta 2030. But knowing what this is, the Avett Center for Superintendents Collaborative, the work and the mission is very profound, specifically looking at now some of the outcomes that we’re seeing in the education ecosystem. So if I’m a leader, right, how would I get involved with the collaborative and what are some of the success stories that are coming out of this project?
Dr. Baron Davis
One of the ways to be involved is simply by having the program in your school district or in a school. And so are you a school or do you have a school that’s an Avett school? And, Avett is really about focusing on that first kind of generation college student and preparing them for for college entry or career. It’s been proven and found that students who engage in Avett have a better success rate and graduation rate and college enrollment rate as well as college completion. And so one of the ways to get engaged in it is to just reach out and find out, if you don’t know what it is, to find out a little bit more about the organization and whether or not it aligns with your philosophical and your educational beliefs about what type of experience you want to offer to students in your school district. The Collaborative of Superintendents are actually, I think, selected by the regional staff who oversee a particular region, and they look at superintendents who are doing some good work with Avett or in Avett and initially brought that group together. And so at the time we were moving toward… Edmond had been doing Avett for years in Richland prior to my role as superintendent had already been established. But we were kind of disconnected. Some schools were doing it, some schools weren’t doing it. I wanted to make it district focused. And so we then became district wide and everybody would have and practice the tenants of Avett at every school. And so that I think was something that caught their attention because we didn’t have too many district wide Avett particularly of that size.
Dr. Michael Conner
And Dr. Davis, one thing I want to highlight is and it goes back to one of your answers from a previous question, is being strategic and tactical and to my audience, what you heard Dr. Davis say, was he saw a promise, a promise in practice with Avett. Right. And instead of having it in this ad hoc implementation, only being implemented in specific schools, he scaled it system wide to be systematized across his district. So very strategic and very tactical on how he was able to scale those promising practices to ensure that all were being impacted and affected by this. So now, thank you, Dr. Davis, for giving us that little nugget. But if I want to… if I’m a superintendent, and I want to become an Avett school district, or if I’m a principal and I want to adopt Avett, how would I be able to get in contact with certain people within your coalition?
Dr. Baron Davis
I mean, you can visit Avett’s website and then you will find the regional Avett staff person, staff person that’s assigned to that region and their information should be on the website, you will reach out to them and connect with them on that. But the first thing I would do is find out if there are any Avett schools or school districts nearby. And I think you’ll get more benefit first, seeing it in action before you even begin to reach out and there probably will be some school districts. We have many schools and districts come visit our schools because we have demonstration sites and that’s kind of a distinction that Avett would give you as either being exemplary of being a demonstration site where you can come and see Avett in action as being integrated to advocate principles and breaks being integrated into the day to day educational experience of students. And so I would reach out to those schools and those school leaders. If I was a principal involved with it, I would find one of those principals maybe set up a zone and reach out to those school leaders. I wouldn’t even be surprised if a demonstration site school wouldn’t even allow you to see a class in action from where you are simply through technology because now you can do that and we can have the teachers turn on the… I know in my former district it would be really easy and convenient to be able to give a school or a school district that was interested in having Avett an opportunity to see firsthand what the experience looks like, regardless of where they are in the country.
Dr. Michael Conner
Absolutely. Dr. Davis, I want to touch upon two important points that I think people need to realize – this is occurring in education. And how could we look at curtailing some of this, I like to say, exacerbated polarization of certain things. And one is that we’re seeing is a strategic resistance with the elimination of specific courses. And egregiously, and I’m going to say it unapologetically and boldly, egregiously minimizing content to a bare, minimal that really does highlight culture and ethnic history and backgrounds. When our student representation for Generation Alpha and Generation Z in public education, they represent 50% of the black and brown students. So basically what we’re doing is we’re eliminating specific topics from curriculum frameworks where our black and brown students are the majority of the demographic within public education. So, I mean, we’re seeing more states now. Florida led it, I like to say, led the initiative of eliminating courses or minimizing content and important courses that recognizes the history of people. But now we’re seeing more states moving to adopt these practices where they’re on “curriculum evaluations” to evaluate the content within these courses. Dr. Davis we’ve never seen education this polarized and politicized before, but we are in education. And frankly, to put it, how are we going to address this polarization before it’s too late, we’re going to see black and brown or cultural history be eliminated from education?
Dr. Baron Davis
So, you know, Michael, I think we have seen the polarization and the politicization and the weaponization of education in this country before. It was during the segregation of schools and then the desegregation of those schools. I can only imagine what school leaders and parents and boards and communities were going through as we were desegregating public schools in this country. And I would imagine there were all types of measures and things and tactics that were put in place to slow down. We already know that. Although desegregation, the order of desegregation was given, I think, in 1956, I believe, I could be wrong, I hope that the historians watching this don’t hold that against me. But I know it was several years, 25 or so years later or 20 plus years later, before schools actually started doing desegregation and in particular here in South Carolina. So we’ve seen this before but we’re standing in the course at the threshold of a very pivotal time, a time that owned second to desegregation of public schools. That is going to fundamentally, I think, shape the the educational experience of all students, thus creating a society that may be even more polarized if we’re not careful about the decisions that we’re making and what we put value on when it comes to information that students should receive in our country. But I think this time it would have a global impact on the students who are being educated in this country because they can be educated in some silos or in isolation and in absence of other culture and other cultural experiences and other ideas and thoughts of people who are different from them and learning how to find value in those thoughts and compromise in those differences, but appreciated nonetheless in psychology. And in one of the things that I believe is an existential fear is I can’t remember the name of the, it’s at the top of my head, but it talks about a fully functioning adult and the key to being fully functional is awareness. And you think about the power of knowing who you are, your culture, your history as a young person, particularly a young person of color, and more specifically, a student in this country, a young African-American student, black student, understanding who you are and where you come from, what was accomplished in your culture and the contributions that your culture is made to eliminate those things and that and that. And that’s the good and the bad. You didn’t start seeing some of this pushback, I think, around these topics into… I will say that the topics in several of these conversations, they were very empowering and it can be inspirational depending on how you look at the message. And when we started learning them with the collective conscious, when Tulsa nine was brought to… I’m sorry, when the Tulsa massacre was brought to the collective consciousness of the country, there were some people who maybe looked at it as like you’re making people feel guilty about what was done in the past. But also some may say, wow, I didn’t realize that black people had accomplished so much with so little with so much resistance. So let me learn from that experience. Let me acknowledge that experience and embrace that experience and figure out how we in communities work together. And when people within their own community work together, there can be empowerment from that. So I think there’s power from this awareness that seems frightening that we have this self awareness and not being told who we were, but learning the true identity of and the true history of who we are and what that experience is like in this country. And that scares people when it becomes just this debate. But it only seems to be something as relates to black women, African men, African Americans. It seems to be a concern or issue. And so we got to really continue to have a conversation We can work through this. We got to have a reconciliation before we have to have this period of reconciliation if we really want to move this country forward.
Dr. Michael Conner
And when we talk about this reconciliation, everything that you said, it was just absolutely spot on. I think we need to have a reconciliation with superintendents. Because we’re starting to see superintendents leave in an inordinate amount. And we’ve seen some of the best superintendents, Dr. Davis, within the past two years, just walk away from it because of the political inertia that is not really, I should say, not really known to people that don’t sit in the seat. And trust me, I can tell you this right. There is a lot of inertia that’s going on in the back end that superintendents have to deal with on a consistent basis. So the name of this episode today is How to survive, thrive and sustain in the AC stage of education. So, Dr. Davis, from just your level of expertise or your expertise that you have for superintendents, aspiring superintendents, cabinet leaders, instructional leaders at the state level, what advice would you provide to them to survive, thrive and sustain it? In this new era of leadership and paradigm in education.
Dr. Baron Davis
I think you have to be able to, one, compartmentalize it when possible. You have to create some boundaries for you personally. You do this work when possible. You have to seek rest and care when doing these difficult tasks and I think you have to have an understanding that you’re not by yourself. So you need to seek a tribe in collaboration with people who are like minded and doing similar work so that you can find a support system to help you and then within your own school district or your community, you need people to support the work as well. So the list is not all on you and you can’t see it about it being all on you. And then this is not about popularity or the spotlight or anything like that. This is really about the work and about the future of our country, the future of our children. And keeping that in the forefront of the decisions that you’re making in that way. Like I said earlier, you have this kind of euphoric idea of what you’re striving toward, but there’s just cause that you can keep working toward when things get difficult and when they get challenging. And I think honestly when they get challenging and difficult to say that and to reach out and get help, if you need help on something, don’t try to tackle these things all along and by yourself because it’s a lonely job as a Superintendent. And you know how it is. I mean, as I told someone before, my experience in this role, I had a mentor of mine who told me that the job makes you paranoid. And, as I said, I live in a constant state of paranoia. Yes, a consistent state of paranoia.
Dr. Michael Conner
So it wasn’t just only me, Dr. Davis.
Dr. Baron Davis
No, it wasn’t. I mean, it isn’t. If I could get a phone call and immediately I see an email with a certain name on it and I think it’s a problem, wake up. We’re thinking about problems. And I guess anything that happens, I think it was trying to find out what was the intent behind the word and a comment that was made, the action that was taken. And so you got to have a healthy outlet with this work and not take that so seriously. Because regardless of you, regardless, there’s always someone that’s going to blame you for something in this work. It’s always someone is going to blame you. It’s always about who is going to criticize or critique you. There’s always going to be someone who wants you out of the role and don’t think you’re doing a good job. And that’s the difficult side of it. Work is… we come up to a system where we will concentrate on student achievement and student growth and things like that. But when you get into see, most superintendents aren’t leaving because the student achievement is poor. And leaving because of the politics, now they’re leaving because of the inability to successfully navigate the politics while maintaining a healthy distance, keeping themselves without losing themselves. What it basically boils down to is we’re going to see you sacrifice, how much of it are you willing to sacrifice. So they’ve got to be prepared to do that before they go in. And that’s our roles now. Those who’ve done it, it’s to help prepare them for that.
Dr. Michael Conner
Absolutely. And, Dr. Davis, you contextualized it perfectly. You’re not in this alone. And reach out for support and assistance. And that healthy outlet, that phrase that you said because people need… I think that we get so caught up in our work that we tend to forget what that healthy outlet is because, oh, man, you brought back memories. You see a name on an email, your stomach turns. You see a number come up on the work phone, you get nervous. There’s stuff like that I think that we need to be able to… it lives in the job but also that’s not healthy so how can we ensure that we create those healthy outlets to ensure that we are staying healthy in the position. So thank you for that, Dr. Davis. But last question. And I ask this question all the time, and a lot of people don’t stay within the actual realm because, again, we like to talk. There was maybe one other person that stayed in this line of answering the question the way it is. But I’m telling you, take it however you want it. What three words, only three words, do you want today’s audience to leave our podcast with regarding leadership and culture? What should our participants always adhere to when we reflect on how we can reimagine these spaces to truly meet, whether it be the theoretical, empirical, practical, or the mandate it needs to meet in the AC stage of education?
Dr. Baron Davis
Yeah, yeah, that’s easy for me. I think for this question, one is authenticity. There are so many styles of leadership and you can’t replicate or duplicate someone else’s style. Your style of leadership is as genuine, as unique as your fingerprint. So authenticity is something that you’ve got to see. You’ve got to know who you are as a leader and you’ve got to be as genuine about that as closely aligned to who you truly are. The perceived and actual self have to be as closely aligned as possible. So your authenticity is your power. That’s the greatest thing, or one of the greatest things you possess. The second thing is you got to be courageous. You got to have courage, you got to make the right decisions. You got to make the tough decisions. You got to make the decisions, the right decisions, the unpopular decision. And you got to be able to stand on it. You got to be able to stand in front of people who make bad decisions. That’s not your decision. You didn’t make the decision, it wasn’t your action, but they’re your people. You’ve got to be willing to stand in front of some of those decisions. You got to be ready to stand in front of the decisions for those people and have the courage to do so so that they’re not negatively impacted by making a mistake. You’ve got to be able to stand up for your kids, your students, particularly those who have been excluded, historically excluded from opportunity and plant a flag on that because the least among us will be the greatest among us. Your job is to be able to shepherd this whole group. So you got to have a courage. You can’t be afraid. It is work… because this is going to be hard. It’s going to be tough. And it’s okay to have chinks in your armor. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. I won’t find anybody who’s got pristine armor. Your leaders out here want to get through the superintendency and leadership with no mistakes, no scars, no change to nothing. Well, all that tells me is you’ve been standing in the back the whole time while everybody else has been in front getting the work in. So when I see you, I want to see your cheap meal armor. Yeah, that’s what I want to see what mistake you have made. You been crucified about a bold decision you stood on. What do you make the safe decisions every time, we got some of those leaders out there. I call them. I call them Pontius Pilots. Those are the people who listen to the crowd and then they say, oh, this is what everybody wants. I’m a wash my hands of it, it’s not my fault. And if it didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to turn out, instead of doing the right thing, knowing that this is the right thing, you know what? The decision of the crowd, those parties, both leaders, they wanted it.
Dr. Michael Conner
Say that one more time, Dr. Davis. One more time for my audience, because I want them to characterize all of them, and I want them to use that. What is it one more time?
Dr. Baron Davis
Pontius Pilot style of leadership. When you go out to the audience… the new audience is Facebook, social media, Twitter, Instagram, all the sources of the people telling you what they want you to do and what you should do, even though you know it’s the wrong thing to do, you do it anyway because that’s what the people say. They want you out. You always know the party is about the people because they always tell you this what the people say, Well, who did you ask? What people did you ask? Did you ask the single mother who is working two jobs what she’s looking for in educational space for a student, or you only talking to a small group of people who follow you on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or go to your church or work out at your gym or play golf at your country club, or get their hair done at a haircut in your shop.
Who are you talking to? So those are the folks that I’m saying you got to… you can’t lead like that because they don’t know all the ins and outs of everything of making that decision. So you got to have the courage to lead and make stuff. And the last thing is truth. You got to stand on the truth. You got to stand on the truth. The truth is a solid foundation. It will not waver. It will not buckle. It will not… stand on the truth and root yourself in the truth. And now I’ll be a little bit more explicit now, because they can edit this out if it’s a problem. The truth is the word of God. You got to stand on that. Listen, you got to stand on the truth, man. That it doesn’t shift. It doesn’t change. It’ll give you all the insights you need to lead. If you just trust it, you just trust that where you stand on is firm. When things are bad, it’s going to be there for you. And when things are good it’s going to be there. I am a witness to that and I’m continuing to stand on truth and those three things, A-C-T. I call them act. That’s what you need to lead. You need to act up and anticipate courage and truth.
Dr. Michael Conner
And you heard that straight from Dr. Davis. I’ll tell you this, there was a… they want to talk about a testament. Of what? Of what God’s word can truly do. Look at the bounce back for myself as well. And just to be able to have this conversation, with you, Dr. Davis, that is a testament to that man. I tell you, Philippians 413, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. So authenticity, courage and truth, act. You better act, everybody. Dr. Davis it is an absolute honor and pleasure to have you on Voices for Excellence, my brother. I look up to your inspiration. Thank you for all that you do.
Dr. Baron Davis
I appreciate you, my brother. Thank you for the opportunity. And I look forward to catching up with you soon, man.
Dr. Michael Conner
Absolutely. We’re going to be somewhere I know together this spring. Happy April, everybody. Onward and upward. Have a great day.
