Heather A. Davis's Page

Life as a faculty member is often hard to describe... On the one hand you have your biological family who you love despite the fact that you may or may not share anything in common with them. Then, there is your academic family - the sisters you went to school with, the parents who mentored you, and relatives spread across the country that you can't wait to see each conference. This summer I reunited with my sisters and mom for tea at the Royal Fairmont York Hotel in Toronto. We were all attending the American Psychological Association and we got together to talk about our work and mentor each other. We share everything in common, but biology, and there is much love. Together we are about to embark on a journey to write an inter-generational book on mentoring scholars. (Missing from this photo is my sister Dr. Jessia DeCuir-Gunby and our academic dad, Dr. Paul Schutz).

Not surprisingly, developing and maintaining relationships with my own students is really important to me. Here is a photo of my OSU family (minus one who graduated and moved on). Since this photo was taken, I have seen four more graduate and go on to become faculty at Auburn, Strayer, and Emory Universities and Directors of Research for KidsOhio.org and the See Forever Foundation. I believe strongly that for students to be successful in conducting and producing research they need opportunities to actively participate in the process (from start to finish), generous amounts of constructive feedback, and opportunities to celebrate their accomplishments.