Stephanie Davis oral history interview, September 29, 2010

Item — othertype: Oral History

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Interviewed by Morna Gerrard. Stephanie Davis begins her second oral history by discussing her work with the Atlanta Women’s Fund and the projects that she launched with the Fund, including Numbers Too Big to Ignore and a lesbian breast health campaign. She talks about the decision to separate the Fund from the Community Foundation, and the conflicts associated with that. She also talks about the opportunity she had to run for political office, and how her decision not to run affected her and her career path. She describes her activism in the fight to end child prostitution, beginning with her role in establishing Angela’s House during her years at the Women’s Foundation. After leaving the Foundation, she continued to work to end child sex trafficking, as Mayor Shirley Franklin’s policy advisor on women’s issues. Davis discusses the Women’s Policy Group, a lobbying organization she founded, and her role as the first executive director of the Women’s Assembly. As the oral history comes to a close, Davis focuses on her more current work, including the White House Project, the board for the W.E.B. Dubois Society, the board of the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and the board for Synchronicity Theatre. At the end of the interview, Davis gives advice to younger generations of women activists.

Dates

Creation: September 29, 2010

Creator

Davis, Stephanie (Interviewee, Person)

Restrictions on Access

Oral history available for research in the Special Collections and Archives Reading Room.

Biographical Note

Stephanie Davis is the executive director of Georgia Women For a Change, a non-profit public policy institute with a gender lens, that represents Georgia activists across a spectrum of issues including health care, economic justice and challenging violence against women and girls. Georgia Women for a Change introduced legislation to combat human trafficking and institute flexible sick leave policy. Davis served as the first Policy Advisor on Women's Issues to Mayor Shirley Franklin and in that role, coordinated the "Dear John" campaign to end the prostitution of children in Atlanta. As the first director of the Atlanta Women's Foundation, where she served for 11 years, Davis was responsible for raising several million dollars, establishing an endowment and positioning the Foundation to be the fastest growing women's fund in the country. Davis currently serves on the Board of Synchronicity Theatre and the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She is a graduate of Skidmore College and recieved one of the country's first Masters in women's studies from Goddard College.