Davis is an associate professor of business management at NC State, specializing in HRM, and has been the advisor to the NC State SHRM chapter for 10 years.

The award from the SHRM Foundation honors Davis' outstanding service and leadership provided to the student chapter at NC State, and includes a plaque and a $1,000 prize.

SHRM is an international organization for human resource professionals. Its student program links HRM students with practitioners for career growth and development. The NC State student chapter has 185 members, mostly undergraduate students pursuing a business management degree with a concentration in human resource management.

In her tenure as chapter advisor, Davis has guided the student group from inactive status to one of the largest and most honored chapters in the nation. Six times, it was named most outstanding student chapter in North Carolina. It has won national Top 10 honors six times.

In the past four years, teams from the NC State SHRM chapter placed first at the Area II regional competition and advanced to the national finals of the HR Games, a national collegiate competition sponsored by SHRM.

Davis is dedicated to working closely with HR students and SHRM members to develop their career interests and opportunities. Students praise her abilities to encourage, challenge and inspire them inside and outside the classroom. They appreciate her commitment to advising the chapter and to mentoring individual students year after year.

Davis is active with local SHRM professional chapters, serves on the SHRM College Relations Committee and speaks frequently at the SHRM annual conference about chapter advising. She also has helped other local colleges launch their own student SHRM chapters.