Biography:

Oliver J. Davis, Jr., ACSW, LCSW, LMSW, Assistant Professor of Social Work, joined the Andrews University Social Work faculty in 2003.  For the past four years, he has served as the BSW Program Director at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan.  Prior to coming to Andrews University, Davis taught on the School of social Work graduate faculty at the Indiana University MSW Program in South Bend, where he served as a Visiting Lecturer in Social Work, a Social Work Field Instructor, and on the MSW Program Advisory Council.

For nine years, Davis owned a private practice: Visions Counseling Center in South Bend, IN.  He has a vast experience in counseling and lecturing youth and adults who are in distress, which stems from marital conflicts, family violence, burnout, and job jeopardy situations.  He is also a poet who integrates his work within his course countent and lectures.  For the past three years, Davis has chaired the Arts Festival at the annual CSWE APM, in which social work educators present ways in which they integrate the arts within their dissemination of social work education.

Davis was elected to serve as the Region 2 area (South Bend, Mishawaka, Elkhart) Representative on the Indiana Chapter of NASW Board (2000-2002), and was instrumental in saving the school social work jobs at the South Bend Community School Corporation.  He is also very active in the political system in the South Bend, IN area, and currently serves as the Vice President of the South Bend Common (City) Council.  He was elected to the Council - 6th District seat in November of 2007.  Also, Davis is the Chairman of the South Bend Public Transportation Board of Directors (TRANSPO).  He also was recently re-elected to serve a second one-year term as the Chairperson of the Andrews University Senate.  Davis is an ordained Elder in the Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Bend, IN.

Mr. Davis received his BSW from Oakwood College in Huntsville, AL in 1991; received his MSW, with a specialization in child & family services and a course concentration in clinical work from the Ohio State University in Columbus in 1992; and is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree at Andrews University in Educational Psychology.

Mr. Davis has one daughter, named Starr.