Davies manages Water.org’s programs in Sub-Saharan Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Ghana), which entails working with our East Africa Regional office and directly with partners. This includes certifying new partner organizations; working on program development through proposal-writing; monitoring the program activities and budget; evaluating the impact of programs; and communicating the good news and lessons learned to Water.org and our partners.
After college, Davies served in the Peace Corps as a water, sanitation and rural health volunteer in El Salvador educating community members on composting latrines, organizing a community water project, and working with local schools teaching health and leadership classes. She then returned to Kansas and continued working with underserved communities as director of the Kansas Community HealthCorps, an AmeriCorps program serving community health centers and safety net clinics.
Prior to joining Water.org, Davies conducted research in water, sanitation and hygiene with Emory University’s Center for Global Safe Water in rural schools and urban areas in western Kenya. In this position, she melded technology and public health research by using personal digital assistants and geographic information systems in the field to investigate the relationship between behaviors, the environment, water sources, and drinking water quality in urban and rural households.
Commitment to Water.org
“My experience living in a rural community in El Salvador without a reliable and safe water supply opened my eyes to the daily work of women and girls in providing water and cleanliness to their families. I learned how wearing the lack of water was on the community. Although water supply improvements are always listed by community leaders as the number one development priority, lack of resources, such as limited access to appropriate technologies, make meeting this priority difficult.
From my experiences in Central America and later in East Africa, I came to believe adequate water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure and education are an important first step in improving health and increasing community empowerment. Without the daily burden of water collection, women and girls have more time for education and an opportunity for income generation. Many communities around the world would like to improve their water and sanitation infrastructure, but lack the resources to do so. I believe Water.org can assist these communities in achieving their development goals using local and sustainable technology.”
Education
B.S. in Journalism, University of Kansas B.A. in Spanish
University of Kansas M.P.H. Global Health
Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health
