Rate My Professor Michael Davis

Michael Davis served as an assistant professor in the School of Communication Studies at James Madison University, where he also directed the Debate Team and advised its members in national competitions. He earned his B.A. and M.A. from Syracuse University and his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia in Communication Studies. Under his leadership, the JMU Debate Team achieved notable successes, including improved performance against regional rivals. Davis organized annual high school debate tournaments at JMU, fostering civic engagement among participants. In recognition of his outstanding contributions to debate coaching, civic engagement, and democratic deliberation, he received the George Zeigelmueller Award in 2014 from the National Debate Tournament—one of two lifetime achievement awards given annually. He was one of only a few coaches to also receive the Don Brownlee Award the previous year.

Davis engaged in scholarly and pedagogical projects emphasizing community involvement and ethical reasoning. In 2015-2016, he was awarded a Faculty Senate Vision Mini-Grant for his project 'Oral History Archive of Those Displaced by the Creation of the Shenandoah National Park.' Initiated at the request of the National Park Service, the project involved students conducting interviews with descendants of displaced families, park officials, and historians; archiving scattered public materials into a central database housed at JMU; and presenting findings at a conference. It integrated community service, engaged learning, and civic engagement themes related to citizen responsibilities. Additionally, Davis contributed to JMU's Quality Enhancement Plan, The Madison Collaborative: Ethical Reasoning in Action, by leading workshops that introduced the Eight Key Questions—Outcomes, Fairness, Authority, Liberty, Rights, Responsibilities, Empathy, and Character—to guide ethical decision-making in complex scenarios. He advised undergraduate honors projects, including research on media framing in NASA's space shuttle program cancellation. Subsequently, Davis advanced to Chief of Staff and Executive Adviser to the JMU President, overseeing strategic planning, policy, and institutional research, before becoming President of Fairmont State University.