Born and raised in Jamaica, Ashley Ann Davis brings a firsthand perspective on infrastructure challenges faced by small island nations.  

Davis is a Kummer Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E) Fellow studying engineering management who will graduate May 16. She’s focused her doctoral research on exploring realistic pathways to energy resilience for those communities. 

“I really wanted to look at not only the technical solutions but also the systems that were surrounding that, such as political, social, economic and environmental issues and tie them into how countries are becoming more resilient,” Davis says.  

Davis says that developed nations have certain resources and structures that typically aren’t in developing countries, so she has researched technical solutions that can help build countries up a baseline resilience.  

“For example, I’ve been through several hurricanes in my lifetime and on a small island like Jamaica, you’re down for weeks at a time. Sometimes months,” she says. “That can really stop progress. You don’t get to bounce back as quickly as possible. So, a lot of my research was around energy infrastructure.” 

Davis went to South Africa in 2024 to research the country’s current energy infrastructure and says South Africa is in a transition period to lower its carbon footprint. However, it can be tough for a country to change, since the current model generates profit, and is deeply entrenched into their system.  

“I wanted to do more research to look at the nuances of it,” she says. “I feel like a lot of times when we have conversations within the energy space, or even the climate change space, it’s very polarized.” 

Her research explores the middle ground, asking: how can we do better but within an existing context? 

“How do we try to improve slowly or in a way that makes sense, without trying to completely overhaul the system,” she says.  

Davis was part of the first cohort of the I&E Fellows program, launched in 2021. She said being in that program helped her not only financially, but also helped create a community of other graduate students. 

“A lot of my undergrad friends graduated and very few stayed on for graduate school,” she says. “The program did a great job of allowing me to meet other people that are also doing a Ph.D.” 

Davis says the program also provided speaker events, workshops and emphasized experiential learning. For example, she not only went to South Africa for research but also completed a co-op with The Walt Disney Company on an engineering management team in 2022. 

“I helped work with a lot of the utilities team to see the aspects of the park that a lot of people don’t think about. It was an incredible experience,” she says. “I was at Disney every day. My office was at the park. I met lifelong friends there.” 

In the near future, Davis aspires to start her own micro-consultancy firm. 

“I really want to bring my focus and love of resilient systems to organizations,” Davis says. “I would essentially be doing an audit and coming in to help find the organization’s weak points. I would like to do that for nonprofits or issues within the education space to help leaders build out resilient systems. For example, to help avoid any layoffs, how can I create systems that respond to drastic changes without businesses shutting down completely?”  

Davis has advice to current and incoming students at S&T: your college life is what you make it. She started S&T’s Black Gems organization as an undergraduate student, which was created as a safe space for women on campus providing community building and professional development. 

“I made the most out of my time at S&T, from internships to getting involved with campus organizations,” she says. “You can either be a part of things or create things, like I did with Black Gems. If you see a gap, fill it. You can be an active member of your community.” 

About Missouri S&T   

Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is a STEM-focused research university of over 7,000 students located in Rolla, Missouri. Part of the four-campus University of Missouri System, Missouri S&T offers over 100 degrees in 40 areas of study and is among the nation’s top public universities for salary impact, according to the Wall Street Journal. For more information about Missouri S&T, visit  www.mst.edu.