Cathi A. Davis

Ruby Bridges Elementary School
Northshore School District
Woodinville, Washington
cdavis@nsd.org

As founding principal of Ruby Bridges Elementary School, Cathi Davis has built a one-of-a-kind learning environment where racial and educational justice are not just guiding values but are woven into the very fabric of teaching, learning, and culture. Davis was at the helm during the initial visioning, planning, and design process before opening the school in 2020 amid the pandemic. Despite the team-building challenges inherent in pandemic learning, Davis united staff around a vision of universally designed instruction that embeds intervention and enrichment in the general education environment, ensuring no student’s potential is limited by deficit-based labels. The impact of this model quickly caught the state’s attention. Ruby Bridges has been an Inclusionary Practices Demonstration Site for the state of Washington since 2020 and has provided visits and professional development to over 500 people from locations nationally and internationally. A documentary will be released in 2026 sharing the stories and experiences of students, families, and staff in fully inclusive learning, titled “All of Us.” Since opening, Ruby Bridges has sustained consistent academic growth at all levels, including accelerated IEP goal attainment, by anticipating variability in lesson-planning and taking an affirming, relevance-based approach to universal curricular design. Driving this success is Davis’ skillful instructional leadership and her conviction that full inclusion will propel our schools toward justice without compromising individualized growth. Davis is an Ed.D. candidate at Seattle Pacific University, where she previously earned her K-12 Superintendent Certification. She holds a B.S. from Houghton University and an M.Ed. and a K-12 Principal Certification from the University of Washington.