Gloria Davis

Gloria Davis has served as superintendent of Dodge City Public Schools in Kansas since 2001. She moved there from the St. Louis suburb of University City, where she worked as an elementary school teacher, principal and assistant superintendent.

She received her master’s degree in Educational Administration from Washington University in St. Louis and is working toward her doctorate from St. Louis University.

Davis has received many awards, including the Congressional Citation for Excellence in Educational Reform and Leadership, the 2004-05 Leadership for Tomorrow award given by the Kansas Association of School Boards and the Governor of Kansas’s 2005 Outstanding Corporate Citizen award.

Eric Witherspoon

Eric Witherspoon has been superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools in Des Moines, Iowa, since 1998. He received his doctorate from Purdue University in 1987 and began his career in education as an English teacher at Crown Point High School in Indiana. He later served as superintendent of two Indiana school districts: Hobart City Schools and Metropolitan School District of Pike Township in Indianapolis.

Witherspoon was named Iowa Superintendent of the Year for the 2001-02 school year and has taught as adjunct faculty at Purdue University, Butler University and Iowa State University. He was an instructor in the Iowa Superintendents’ Financial and Leadership Consortium and chairman of the Great Des Moines Circles of Support coalition.

-Anna Prior