Title: Beverly Watts Davis Named Director of Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

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Section/SPIG: Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs

Issue Date:

Beverly Watts Davis, Director Center for Substance Abuse Prevention

On May 7, 2003, Beverly Watts Davis began her appointment as the Director of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP), after recently being named to the position by Charles G. Curie, Administrator of SAMHSA. CSAP works in partnership with Federal agencies, State and local government, and public and private sector organizations to prevent the onset of illegal drug use, alcohol abuse and tobacco use by building resilience among young people and promoting protective factors in communities nationwide.

Prior to joining SAMHSA, Davis was the Senior Vice President of United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County, as well as Executive Director of its San Antonio Fighting Back Anti-Drug Community Coalition. She has extensive experience with managing and administrating multi-site community grant programs and comprehensive prevention, early intervention projects targeted to: children and adolescents; ethnic minorities; pregnant and postpartum women; and ex-prisoners reentering society.

Previously Davis was a consultant to and later named Director of Community Health for the Travis County, Texas Health Department. She got her start in the field of substance abuse prevention in 1988 when she served as the Statewide Coordinator for Texans' War on Drugs, where she provided training, technical assistance, and community mobilization services for communities throughout Texas, and directed the statewide Red Ribbon Campaign.

She will lead CSAP at a time when the Center is working to identify prevention programs that are effective and can be replicated across the country. She will also be working to prevent substance abuse in the workplace and to promote state activities that prevent the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to minors.

Davis received her bachelor's degree in economics, political science, and social sciences from Trinity University in San Antonio and is pursuing her MA in management and human resources from Webster University in Jeffersonville, Indiana.