Chief of Staff

Dr. G. Leah Davis Dr. Davis is Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson, responsible for executing the CEO’s vision, policies, and priorities. She supervises the Cabinet and staff; manages internal and external affairs, special projects, and constituent services; assists with departmental oversight, policy, and legislation; and oversees the Citizens Council. She is the CEO’s liaison for implementing the recommendations of the county-wide department organizational assessment and for the Board of Commissioners, county departments, government agencies, constituents, and citizen groups. Dr. Davis also oversees signature events, including the State of the County, the Spirit of DeKalb Gala, and the annual DeKalb Small Business Summit, and represents the CEO at internal and external meetings. 

Previously, she spent more than five years as Chief of Staff to then-Commissioner Cochran-Johnson in Super District 7, leading office strategy, office oversight, drafting of legislation, budget management, and program development.

In 2026, NACo President George Dunlap appointed Dr. Davis to the Healthy Counties Innovation Council, the International Economic Development Innovation Council, and the Large Urban County Caucus. She is also a member of the Health Policy Committee.

Dr. Davis is a former Federal Program Officer with the National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA), U.S. Department of Commerce, where she managed a $51 million portfolio of federal funds. She previously served as a contractor with ASR Analytics on the federal evaluation of NTIA’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.

As a senior analyst in the City of Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management, Office of Performance & Accountability, Dr. Davis worked under then-Commissioner Kishia Powell and Mayor Kasim Reed. She received the Commissioner’s Award for her service.

Dr. Davis is a trained healthcare professional and executive. She completed a fellowship from the National Association of Community Health Centers at a mid-sized healthcare system, the largest south of Chicago. Dr. Davis was hired as a member of the executive team and directed the managed care contracting unit, negotiating health plans and increasing revenue. She also managed health centers, served as interim HR manager, wrote and managed federal grant programs in maternal and childcare, oversaw a health department grant service contract, assisted in the acquisition of physician offices, and directed staff. Dr. Davis received an award for her leadership.

Dr. Davis is a trailblazer, history maker, researcher, and minister in training. She is the second Black in the U.S. to earn a Ph.D. in Public Affairs from the top-ranked Paul H. O’Neill School of Public & Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington (IUB) and also received a minor in Information Science from the School of Library & Information Science (SLIS). She was the first recipient of the Phillip E. Rutledge Fellowship in SPEA and awarded a GAANN Dissertation Fellowship in SLIS. Dr. Davis maintains an active research agenda that lies at the intersection of federalism, governance, and network analysis. She specializes in quantitative and qualitative methods. A published scholar, Dr. Davis has presented at numerous conferences in the U.S., as well as Paris and South Korea. At IUB, she taught more than 300 students and developed the Groups Program’s first

STEM program for first-generation students under then-director Janice Wiggins, earning two servant leadership awards.