Since 1999, Chris Davis has climbed the ranks at Community Partnership of the Ozarks Inc., an organization focused on community and neighborhood development, children’s well-being, and substance abuse and violence prevention. He began as a prevention specialist and received several promotions, arriving in his current role as deputy director of substance abuse and violence prevention in 2010.
“I have helped communities across southwest Missouri to identify and reduce their substance abuse and related problems for the past 11 years as coordinator of many prevention programs and campaigns at CPO,” he said.
Davis is a Missouri advanced certified substance abuse prevention professional, and he says his proudest accomplishment to date was a two-year collaboration with Branson city leaders to form an underage drinking prevention coalition in Taney County.
“These efforts culminated in the coalition winning the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America’s Coalition of Excellence-Milestones Award in 2010,” Davis says, noting that CADCA works with more than 5,000 community coalitions nationwide and presents the Milestones honor to just one coalition a year.
In 2007, Davis was selected as one of 15 credentialed trainers for Missouri’s substance abuse prevention specialist training, enabling him to share his expertise with others.
“Several people I have mentored have gone on to achieve significant success in their own right,” he says. “Several of them are now in management or board positions of local nonprofit and educational organizations.”
He’s also taught grant writing to other coalitions and community groups, enabling them to share in local, state and federal grants.
“I have been directly or indirectly responsible for securing more than $8 million for prevention services in southwest Missouri,” he says.
Through his work, Davis is often contacted by municipalities and organizations to help with tasks such as research on policy change and evaluating existing prevention strategies, but he lends his expertise off the clock, too.
Since joining Sertoma Club less than a year ago, Davis has held several roles, including volunteer coordinator for the 2010 chili cook-off, recruiting more than 100 people to help with that event.
“Due to my expertise in underage drinking prevention, club leaders asked me to assist with enhancing Sertoma’s responsible beverage service procedures,” he says, noting that he provided training to six Sertoma clubs, teaching them how to spot fake IDs and how to refuse alcohol sales to minors.
At Messiah Lutheran Church, where Davis has been a member for six years, his leadership includes serving on the church council and as a member of the crisis response team, facilitating presentations on bullying and violence prevention for the congregation.
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