25 Years of Service: Ivan Davis

Professor of English, Department of English

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“A blessing to our campus” is how student Shannon Huang describes Ivan Davis. His 25 years of service at Andrews University have seen him function as a coach of the Andrews University Cardinals women’s basketball team, the editor of “FOCUS,” the Writing Program director, and most recently, the director of the Writing Center, in addition to serving as a teacher, advisor, mentor and colleague. Ivan juggles these various responsibilities with aplomb, with others characterizing him as “unfailingly generous,” unselfish, committed, deeply invested in his students’ writing development, and in the words of student Nora Martin, “intelligent…and unfailingly kind.”

Ivan is known for modeling an impressive work/life balance for his colleagues. Beverly Matiko notes how he is always ready with “pleasant conversation about family, travel, sports, camping, dog-training, and many other topics,” while Scott Moncrieff observes how Ivan “is very devoted to the wellbeing of his wife and kids, personally, athletically, academically.” Vanessa Corredera notes how this commitment to balancing the personal and professional has been incredibly helpful to her, helping her feel equally comfortable talking about the kids as discussing pedagogical strategies. A fan of camping, smooth jazz, travel and sports, Ivan brings good cheer, dedication and genuine warmth to the Department of English.

He also offers a dedication to writing and rhetoric to those around him. Ivan received his PhD from Ball State University, where he examined “the network of influences and collaborators who helped to shape the thinking of Fred Newton Scott.” After joining the Department of English in 1997, Ivan dedicated himself to the department’s writing program, keeping “his colleagues updated on composition theory and pedagogy,” a mentorship that, as Meredith Jones Gray shares, has encouraged others, including her, to “try new approaches and [develop] a renewed energy” in the writing classroom.

Ivan has championed writing transfer and “writing-about-writing” as the cornerstone of the composition curriculum at Andrews, and this is also the focus of his current scholarship. In addition to inspiring students with his engaging classroom presence, Ivan mentors them in a range of ways, whether by helping them find writing internships or through his individual writing draft conferences, in which he provides “hours of expert counsel to develop writers,” according to his office next door neighbor Scott Moncrieff. In fact, former student and current colleague Brian Urias credits Ivan “for my interest in rhetoric and composition … he definitely made important contributions to who I am as an educator today.” He has also been instrumental in making the Writing Center “a keystone for this campus” in the wake of Bruce Closser’s retirement.

Perhaps Beverly Matiko says it best when she observes how Ivan “models in his own writing the power of clear, direct, unpretentious communication,” a gift to his students, mentees and colleagues alike.

Congratulations, Ivan, on 25 years of dedicated service to Andrews University.