Garry Davis

Principal TA Consultant

Garry Davis partners with state, regional, and local education agencies, as well as foundations, to design, implement, and evaluate evidence-based strategies that improve student and system outcomes. His work focuses on helping organizations navigate complex change efforts, strengthen implementation, and build capacity for lasting systems improvement. 

Davis has extensive experience leading technical assistance, research, and evaluation initiatives focused on college and career readiness, early warning systems, postsecondary success, implementation science, and organizational change. He is also an experienced facilitator and practitioner of the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM), supporting organizations in effectively implementing and sustaining new initiatives. 

Currently, Davis serves as deputy director of the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Southwest, where he provides leadership across technical assistance and applied research projects that address high-priority educational needs in five southwestern states. He also serves as a co-implementation lead for AIR's Early Warning Intervention and Monitoring System (EWIMS) initiative and directs a portfolio of postsecondary education projects focused on institutional transformation, student success, and intermediary effectiveness. 

In addition, Davis brings extensive experience supporting federally funded Comprehensive Centers. He previously served as deputy director of the Region 9 Comprehensive Center and as a project lead for the Texas Comprehensive Center, helping state education agencies and school districts strengthen their capacity to design, implement, and sustain evidence-based policies and practices.

Related Work
College administrators walking in the hallway
2026-01-30

Improving Institutional Change in Higher Education: The Intermediary Capability Assessment

30 Jan 2026
The Intermediary Capability Assessment (ICA) is a tool and step-by-step process that guides organizations that support higher education institutions through the process of identifying what they do well and where they can improve, so they can better meet those institutions' needs.
High school students working together
2025-02-01

Insights for Student Success and Engagement

Insights for Student Success and Engagement helps school-based teams to implement student-centered data inquiry cycles to identify at risk-students and provide supports to keep them engaged in school.
Tori Cirks and Garry Davis
2024-06-18

Designing Technical Assistance to Solve Challenging Problems

18 Jun 2024
In this video Q&A, AIR’s Tori Cirks and Garry Davis explain more about AIR’s approach to technical assistance and discuss how it can be effective.
2018-06-01

Regional Educational Laboratory Southwest (REL Southwest)

The REL Southwest partners with state and local education agencies and other key stakeholders across the Southwest to use evidence to improve policy and practice.
2015-12-08

CBAM: The Concerns-Based Adoption Model

08 Dec 2015
CBAM is a conceptual framework that provides tools and techniques for facilitating and assessing the implementation of new innovations or reform initiatives. The underlying premise of CBAM is implementing a new initiative requires more than the provision of materials, resources, and training; it requires the understanding that each person involved ...
2014-04-27

Taking Charge of Change

27 Apr 2014
The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) offers tools and techniques that enable leaders to gauge staff concerns and program use in order to give each person the necessary supports to ensure success. Taking Charge of Change is a readable introduction to this method of predicting teacher behavior during a change process. ...
2013-09-20

CBAM 101: Getting Your Feet Wet

20 Sep 2013
This webinar provides an overview of the process of using the Concerns-Based Adoption Model for managing the implementation and impact of reform initiatives. During the webinar, center staff introduce you to the CBAM tools and their uses. You will also hear from a school district representative who uses these tools ...
2013-04-28

Publications │ Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM)

28 Apr 2013
CBAM is a conceptual framework that provides tools and techniques for facilitating and assessing the implementation of new innovations or reform initiatives. Since its development in the 1970s and 1980s, it has been used to help leaders, evaluators, and researchers understand, monitor, and guide the complex process of implementing new ...
2010-12-08

Innovation Configurations │Concerns-Based Adoption Model

08 Dec 2010
When launching a new program, education leaders often provide teachers with a few days of training and then send them back to the classroom. Once there, teachers may discover they have no clear idea of what the program should look like in practice. Innovation Configurations solve this problem by providing ...
2010-12-08

Stages of Concern │Concerns-Based Adoption Model

08 Dec 2010
The progress of new programs is often measured by how well they are being executed. This approach tends to ignore a critical actor—the person charged with implementing the innovation. The Stages of Concern process helps keep the people doing the work at the center of the change process.
Garry Davis 2026
Expertise
Education
College and Career Readiness
Education Policy
Postsecondary Education

M.P.A., LBJ School of Public Policy
University of Texas at Austin

B.A., Communications
University of Texas at Austin

+1.512.476.6861

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