Jennifer and Jefferson Davis are not alums of The University of Alabama, but they love the institution.
The couple, who met as sophomores at Princeton, went on to start careers that have taken them all over the country, eventually landing in Cincinnati, Ohio, where Jennifer is Procter & Gamble’s chief executive officer, health care. Jefferson worked in financial auditing. They started a family along the way — a daughter and two sons. As Jennifer’s career ramped up, it made more sense for Jefferson to manage the household.
The children grew up and went off to college. The daughter, the eldest, went to the University of California, Berkeley, and the middle son went to the University of Oregon. The youngest — you can see where this is going — went to The University of Alabama.
Now entering his senior year, Cole Davis is involved in the Investment Banking Academy and Culverhouse Investment Management Group student organizations and spent the past summer interning on Wall Street. He’s well on his way to a successful post-graduation career.
His parents have seen the successes he’s had at Culverhouse, made possible in part by faculty like John Heins of the College’s value investing program.
And last year, the Davises made a generous gift to directly support the students of Culverhouse — to maximize impact, make a difference.
This maximization of impact is essential to the Davises. To them, college is an environment that challenges one’s way of thinking about the world and propels personal growth. And they’ve proven their interest in the power of education through gifts to the institutions that their other children went to, including the high school in Cincinnati that their boys attended.
“We wanted to continue our giving at the college level because that’s where you begin to think more broadly, you learn, and you step out of your comfort zone,” said Jefferson.
Substantial gifts to the University of Cincinnati to support social justice efforts at UC’s College of Arts & Sciences and College of Law were designed to benefit the largest number of students…and foster conversations that help them grow. Similarly, their gift to Culverhouse will directly support student experiential learning initiatives and other opportunities for them to connect.
“I do believe that when you’re exposed to other people who have different backgrounds, even if you still might disagree on a wide variety of range of topics, hopefully it’s a constructive disagreement because you respect their experiences,” said Jefferson.
The Davises also see giving and helping as fundamental to their beliefs as practicing Catholics. “It’s incumbent upon us to give if we claim to be who we say we are,” says Jefferson.
“You have to back it up sometimes with the appropriate actions.”
For these parents of an Alabama student — parents who did not attend the Capstone but see the promise of its academics and the power of the campus to foster community and conversation — they are creating a legacy that stands long after Cole Davis graduates.