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Cora Anne Davis 1937–2006
Pioneer in Church Social Work

In 1960, as American society broadened its social efforts to address poverty and oppression, Cora Anne Davis launched her ministry career in church social work. Throughout her lifetime she created a legacy for social workers and other Christians leading congregations and other church-related organizations doing social ministries.

Anne Davis, born April 17, 1937 in Baskerville, Virginia, grew up in the arms of the Baptist organization, Woman's Missionary Union (WMU), participating in mission activities from her childhood. Her education was supported by WMU as she attended Averett College, Danville Virginia (1954) and Westhampton College, Richmond Virginia (1955–58) and the Carver School of Missions and Social Work, Louisville, Kentucky, (1958–60). From 1960–1966 she was appointed by the Home Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention, to the Elkhorn Baptist Association's Baptist Center in Lexington Kentucky. In 1966, Davis returned to Louisville, served on the ministry staff at Crescent Hill Baptist Church, and pursued a Masters of Social Work at University of Louisville's Raymond A. Kent School of Social Work.

Davis was one of the first female faculty members at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, appointed in 1970. In 1984, she completed her Ph.D. in higher education from University of Louisville and became founding dean of the Carver School of Church Social Work at the Seminary. Under her leadership, Carver School of Church Social Work became the first MSW program in a seminary to be accredited by Council on Social Work Education (1987).

For Southern Baptist women seeking ministry positions through the '70s and '80s, Davis served as a model and a source of encouragement: she was a skilled preacher, the first woman dean in a Southern Baptist seminary, and provided written and oral encouragement for other women seeking ministry careers. In 1997 in the wake of the conservative take over of Baptist seminaries, her beloved Carver School was closed by the Seminary president and trustees. For Davis, the closing of the Carver school signaled the SBC's abandoning its commitment to social ministries, a commitment that Davis had seen flourish in the 1970s and '80s and recede in the 1990s.

After retirement, Davis moved to Waco Texas and served as Director of Operations for Advocacy Center for Crime Victims and Children and worked as a consultant to Baylor University School of Social Work, designing a new MSW curriculum with her colleague Diana Garland. In 2003, struggling with health concerns, Davis resigned from formal employment, but kept in touch with many students colleagues, and church workers who had been touched by her ministry and leadership. She died November 9, 2006 in Waco at the age of 68.

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Narrative adapted from: "C. Anne Davis: Pioneer in Church Social Work," by T. Laine Scales, In Twentieth Century Shapers of Baptist Social Ethics, L. Allen and L. McSwain (Eds), Macon, GA, Mercer University Press; 2007.
Reprinted with permission from Mercer University Press.