Dr. Johnathan Davis, assistant professor of biology, has earned a 2026 South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities Excellence in Teaching Award.
Each year, SCICU selects one professor from each college in the state for the honor, which includes a certificate and a $3,000 professional development grant. Davis was recognized at the SCICU’s awards dinner held on April 21 in Columbia, South Carolina.
“The SCICU Excellence in Teaching Award is an honor recognizing educators who demonstrate exceptional teaching and unwavering dedication to student success,” says Dr. Robert Lloyd, president and CEO of SCICU. “We are proud to celebrate Dr. Davis and all recipients of this distinction.”
“Receiving this award is humbling,” says Davis, who joined the Wofford faculty in 2022. “I’m lucky to be surrounded by colleagues who care about teaching and mentoring students.”
Davis’ path to teaching began when a professor reached out to him. After completing a bachelor’s degree in fisheries science at Mississippi State University, he was doing research on the Mississippi gulf coast when he met Dr. Allyse Ferrara, distinguished service professor at Nicholls State University. She quickly became a mentor and persuaded him to pursue graduate studies at her institution where he discovered a love for working with students as a teaching assistant in an introductory biology lab. Davis later earned a Ph.D. in biology at Tennessee Tech, at Ferrara’s urging,
“I struggled as an undergraduate student, but Dr. Ferrara took a chance on me and lobbied for my admission into the Nicholls State graduate program,” he says. “I was one of her first graduate students, and she was a great role model for me.”
Now, Davis strives to be an impactful mentor for his own students.
“I try to meet every student in a way that is most effective to how they learn,” he says. He employs a method called flipped learning, where students first engage with material outside of class through readings and videos, then apply the concepts they learned through in-class discussions and activities.
“I like to make classes active and engaging,” says Davis. “We can have amazing discussions because everyone comes prepared, and when we apply concepts in class, I can identify what students are struggling with and intervene immediately to help them.”
Davis also treasures any opportunity to get students involved with his research, which focuses on small species that inhabit freshwater streams.
Last summer, he led a group of students in a study of crayfish in Spartanburg’s urban streams, seeking to understand how urbanization and invasive species impact their behavior. One student researcher, environmental studies and psychology major Katie Stewart ’26, won best poster presentation at the South Carolina American Fisheries Society Annual Conference for a crayfish experiment she completed with Davis’ guidance. This year, students in his ecology course have been pushing this research further by tagging crayfish and tracking their movements within streams to determine why they prefer certain environments over others.
“One of my passions is finding intersections of research and teaching. Not only is it an exciting way to learn, but students can take their findings to conferences and have networking opportunities,” says Davis. “Wofford provides great support for professional development and scholarship.”
Davis says the most rewarding part of his job is watching students grow.
“I get to see their journey from their first-year biology class to graduation. I also get to hear them report back on successes years later and know I played a small part,” he says. “At the end of the day, teaching is partially an act of service, guiding students and shepherding them into the next phase of their life.”