Keynote Speaker

Teacher of the Year, Distinguished Alumni, Outstanding Alumni, an expert of curriculum design and quality instruction, and an advocate for Black students are phrases you would hear to describe Dr. Trinity Davis. She is also a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.  

Dr. Davis began her career as a student challenging the status quo and the elimination of culturally responsive pedagogy in her own education. Often hearing from teachers that her topics of interest were “not in the curriculum” challenged her to focus her career on curriculum design for urban school districts.  

Dr. Davis’ service as a classroom teacher, literacy coach, Associate Professor, and Assistant Superintendent allowed her to maneuver through systems and disrupt the inequalities in education. Knowing that a majority of classroom teachers were white and female, Dr. Davis founded the Urban Suburban Experience (USE) minor at the PSU College of Education to expose white teachers from rural areas to large, urban districts and their students’ distinct needs. Dr. Davis worked to recruit Black teachers and led the charge to bring students of color to the College of Education to learn the importance of their role as classroom teachers.  

Today, Dr. Davis has launched Teachers Like Me with the same commitment to equity and focus on educational outcomes she has demonstrated throughout her career. Teachers Like Me is Dr. Davis’ response to the need for progressive and radical change in the ways we recruit and prepare educators, educate youth, and address systemic inequities in education.