When Pamela Davis was diagnosed with stage II breast cancer, she panicked. The 47-year-old technology educator had never married. She had no children, and her parents and sibling lived out of town or had health problems of their own. She felt very alone.
But Davis was not unfamiliar with serious illness, having endured epileptic seizures since the age of 10. She knew that getting through cancer treatment would take a village. So, when people offered help, she took it, building her own community of caregivers and supporters.
At the time of her cancer diagnosis, Davis was already an accomplished and highly degreed educator with STEM (Science, technology, engineering, math) as her specialty. The native New Yorker had served as Elementary Computer Coordinator with the Elmsford School District for 18 years, during which time she’d earned a Doctor of Education degree from Columbia University.
As if that wasn’t enough, she had also served as Adjunct Professor at St. John Fisher College as well as on the School Board of New Rochelle’s City School District. She was Lead Instructor and designer of the Coding Robotics and 1:1 Devices for NASA’s Endeavor STEM Teacher Certificate Program. And her labor of love? Reach To Teach, Inc., named after her doctoral dissertation at Columbia and founded to generate opportunities for students to learn STEM through performance and play.