She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in general teaching methods, English methods and educational research. Her research focuses on pre-service teacher persona and identity development; most recently, she has explored how persona and identity are presented and developed in social media applications such as Twitter. She is a member of the American Educational Research Association, National Council of Teachers of English, the Association of Teacher Educators and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Recent publications appear in Current Issues in Education and the Journal of Teacher Education. Before coming to UMW, Davis taught secondary English and Journalism in Northern California and Virginia.