Deadria Davis

I attribute my success to resilience, faith, and refusing to give up even when life was difficult. As a first-generation college graduate from Mississippi and one of 18 siblings, I learned early that hard work, sacrifice, and consistency could change the trajectory of my life. During respiratory therapy school, I worked hard to fund my education, including organizing fish fries, garage sales, and even donating plasma for gas money. Those experiences taught me perseverance, humility, and determination.

I also believe success comes from pouring into others. Throughout my career in healthcare leadership, I’ve focused on mentoring staff, building strong teams, and creating environments where people feel supported and empowered to grow. Every challenge, setback, and opportunity has shaped me into the leader I am today.

The best career advice I’ve ever received was: “Never stop growing, and never gatekeep what you’ve learned.” That advice changed the way I approach leadership and success. I believe true leadership is not about being the smartest person in the room — it’s about helping others grow beside you.

In healthcare, I’ve learned that technical skills can open doors, but character, consistency, and the ability to work well with people are what sustain long-term success. I’ve carried that mindset throughout my career by mentoring others, embracing new opportunities, and continuing my education and professional development.

The one advice that I would give them is to not give up. You can have a lot of no's, but one yes is a game changer. And just keep going. You know, don't give up. Like, failure is not an option. I think my biggest achievement out of this is just showing women that come from that lower poverty level that education can be the way out. I just want to show women who feel like even when times get hard, you know, we're supposed to put aside our education, our things to focus on family, but showing women that come from that lower poverty level that education can be the way out is what I want them to know.

I think that my industry is overpopulated with aspiring leaders, because with respiratory, you don't have a lot of avenues besides education or leadership. The challenge is that sometimes when we're overpopulated with earning the title, we forget that leadership begins at bedside. So I think that in our career, if we can stop looking for the title of the leadership and start implementing them at bedside without the title, it helps with patient outcomes significantly.

Family is a big thing for me and a big deal. Growing up in a poverty family, family is really important to me. As a manager, a typical day for me involves connecting with my direct reports because their family life is important to me. Being that I'm new here, I definitely want to get to know them more about them personally, more than their work ethic. That will show me, because that's something that is done daily, but getting to know them personally is the biggest thing that I'm trying to win over. As a new leader, you have to almost kind of prove that you're the one for the job in order to lead people, and you also have to play some ethics in that role too and just kind of be more of a people's person.