Sheryl Evans Davis, EdD, is Executive Director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, appointed in 2016. She is a passionate advocate for equity, access, and educational opportunities for all. Davis, who began her career as a kindergarten teacher, promotes culturally competent strategies while building strong partnerships. Her work focuses on creating pathways to educational success, community safety, and wellness for and within diverse communities.
Since 2019, Davis has worked to build an equity framework with San Francisco community stakeholders and city departments. She facilitates community engagement for the San Francisco Unified School District’s Equity Studies Task Force, served as chair of Mayor London Breed’s Blue Ribbon Panel for Juvenile Justice Reform, and co-facilitated the city’s Close Juvenile Hall Working Group.
Davis developed and launched Mayor Breed’s Opportunities for All initiative, a program focused on providing thousands of internships for youth from diverse backgrounds and with diverse skill sets. The initiative leverages public–private partnerships and collaborations across industries to meet its goals. She is founding director of Mo’MAGIC, a social justice collaborative and program of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, which strives to create opportunities for at-risk and in-risk young people and their communities. Davis is also creator of the Everybody Reads program, a family literacy and reading development initiative, and she has designed a series of in-school groups and curricula focused on social justice, racial equity, student wellness, and academic achievement.
The 2014 recipient of the Anthony Logan Award from the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Bay Area chapter, a 2021 winner of the Black Women Organized for Political Action’s Ella Hill Hutch Award, and the 2022 awardee of AERA's Septima Clark-Ella Baker Human Rights Award, Davis holds a Bachelor of Arts from San Francisco State University, a Master of Public Administration from the University of San Francisco, and a Doctor of Education from the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education.