This week, we are excited to profile the extraordinary Dowayne Davis, a decorated scholar-athlete, former NFL player, and Chief Executive Officer of Philip’s Academy Charter School in Paterson, NJ.
At nine years old, Dowayne Davis boarded a flight to move to the United States from Jamaica. Before getting on the plane, his mother said to him in no uncertain terms: “You’re going there to get an education.”
His family was always very clear: Education was the way to “transcend your current circumstances.”
Dowayne grew up in and went to high school in The Bronx. As a high schooler, he built positive relationships with some great coaches who were also great educators. Football became a positive outlet for Dowayne.
“There were some great men who helped to mold me,” Dowayne said. “And football was part of that. It was a vehicle that took me to college.”
As a student athlete at Syracuse University, Dowayne played in 48 college football games, and he started in 35 of them. He was focused on the field, and off it—Dowayne was a 3-time All-Academic Big East Conference Scholar Athlete and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Systems Management and Technology.
“I always wanted to make sure I lived up to my mom’s expectations,” he said.
From Strong Safety to School Leader
Dowayne was signed by the Dallas Cowboys after graduating from Syracuse. He spent time there, as well as with the Kansas City Chiefs and the Detroit Lions. But he felt pulled back to the classroom.
“I yearned for more,” he said. “I was practicing, working out, but I was yearning to be in a school setting. Education was always such a positive experience for me, especially since I had all of those good men who had helped support me. I wanted to utilize my skill set and give back to kids. So going back into education was an easy one.”
But getting back to education from the football field wasn’t a straightforward path. Coming from the NFL and without a college degree in education, Dowayne needed to enter education through a non-traditional route. Charter schools helped provide him with that route.
“Because I’m a non-traditional educator, public charter schools provided me an opportunity,” said Dowayne.
‘Seeing myself in the young people‘
It wasn’t just the more straightforward path to the profession—Dowayne was drawn to charter schools for three other major reasons: a belief in the power of choice, a desire to serve students, and a love of innovation and inquiry.
“The central core idea of charter schools—that families deserve to have a choice for their young people to do something different than what’s traditionally been available to them—is something I believe in,” Dowayne said.
He also felt a sense of responsibility.
“Seeing myself in the young people in charter schools was a motivating factor,” he said. “I wanted to serve communities of significant need. We are a window into the future for our young people. It gives them an idea of what they could be and what they can be beyond that.”
At heart, Dowayne is also a scientist. “I love the scientific method. Identifying a problem, tinkering, making a hypothesis, testing it—science is a remarkable field,” he said. Charter schools embrace that cycle of learning and improving. “If you’re inquiry-based and love to explore the world, then that model is something you find value in,” he said.
Philip’s Academy
After serving as an administrator and supporting opening, scaling, and renewing schools, Dowayne became Chief Executive Officer of Philip’s Academy Charter School in Paterson, New Jersey.
Philip’s Academy opened its doors in Newark in 1988 after no Newark students “could be found to meet the rigorous standards to receive a full scholarship to St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire.” The school was created as an independent school to provide low-income students with the academic experience to be able to thrive at elite independent secondary schools across the country.
In 2013, Philip’s Academy became the first independent school in New Jersey to convert to a charter school. With this conversion, Philip’s Academy grew its educational model to serve more students—and expanded into Paterson in 2016.
Starting with just 60 kindergarteners, the school now serves nearly 700 students in grades K-8; over 80% are low-income and over 95% are students of color. It’s one of seven charter schools in Paterson that combined serve almost 7,000 students. Four of those schools are expanding their enrollment capacity, underscoring the demand for quality choices. (Jed wrote about the solid progress in New Jersey back in 2023.)
In April 2024, Philip’s Academy opened a new building for its Paterson students, transforming a once-vacant lot into a beautiful, state-of-the-art school. The 63,000-square-foot campus includes a culinary lab, two dedicated STEAM labs, and a rooftop play area.
‘Let’s leave no impact on the table’
For Dowayne, the building isn’t what makes the school. He’s proud of the agency and leadership he sees developing in the students.
“For us, it starts with self and knowing that for me to support my broader community, I have to make sure I develop independently and then start to branch out. If you can tap into young people’s greatness, they’ll not only be competent, they’ll be confident when they’re walking out into the world,” he said.
He also hopes that charter school leaders will use their own agency and leadership to band together to maximize impact.
“Let’s leave no impact on the table,” he said. “In order to assess if there’s untapped impact, go visit other schools, have them come visit you. Be part of that back-and-forth feedback. The highest form of respect is imitation. You may be at a place where you can further your impact because you’ve talked to other public charter school leaders and that can encourage you and your community to improve. Lean into that continuous learning.”
There’s a lot more positive impact to be had. And Dowayne, ever the scientist, is often thinking about scale and sustainability and systems. Yet his impact is perhaps best distilled in purely human terms.
“When you’re able to see someone like me sitting in a CEO seat—a male of color—I do not take that lightly,” he said. “A little Black or Brown boy or girl that doesn’t often see folks that look like them doing this type of work. That in and of itself is powerful—being a representation for our young people and a window into what they can be and be more of.”