Laurie Davis

Laurie is a member of the Emerge Maine Class of 2009 and recently completed her elected term on the Portland City Charter Commission in August 2010. She ran her second successful campaign and was elected to the Portland Maine Board of Public Education in Nov. 2010.

Since 2007, Laurie Davis has been Executive Director of Upward Bound at USM, a federally funded educational opportunity program serving 106 low-income and/or first generation high school students at six high schools in southern Maine.

Before joining USM, she coordinated Portland Public Schools' No Child Left Behind program for 10 years. Laurie also teaches a graduate course in education at USM, focused on the impact of homelessness, foster care, and hospitalization on student learning.

Since 2006 she has served as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), a volunteer guardian ad litem for children in the foster care system. Laurie graduated from Cornell University with a BS in Human Development and Family Studies, and from the University of Southern Maine with a master's degree in Educational Leadership.

She is the single mother of two college age sons who are pursuing degrees at USM and Rochester Institute of Technology. Having grown up in Augusta, Maine and lived on Peaks Island for 23 years, Laurie now lives in Portland where she enjoys gardening and reading in her spare time.