Meet Dr. Crystal J. Davis

We recently connected with Dr. Crystal J. Davis and have shared our conversation below.

Dr. Crystal J., so happy to have you with us today. You are such a creative person, but have you ever had any sort of creativity block along the way? If so, can you talk to us about how you overcame or beat it?

 Act I: The Silencing
 Act II: The Rising Through the Trenches
 Act III: The Global Reintroduction

“You’re not a good writer, Crystal. You should consider another major.”
That was 1988. I was a young woman in a journalism class at Kansas State University, and those words delivered with academic finality branded something deep inside me. Not just disappointment. Defiance.
I remember sitting there, stunned, trying to swallow my voice before it broke open into tears. Something in me knew I could not afford to shatter in that room. But something else, equally sacred, whispered she’s wrong.
I didn’t know it yet, but that moment wasn’t the end of my writing story. It was the spark of a lifetime apprenticeship to the craft. Born not from praise. But from pain.
For years, I carried that professor’s voice in my mind like background static. I pursued excellence not to prove her wrong, but to prove myself right. I knew I could write. What I didn’t know was that writing would become the very tool I used to help others cross the finish line of their dreams.
When I first began editing and coaching doctoral students, I felt like a fish out of water. I was committed but still shaping my voice as a guide. Many of the students who came to me looked like me. They were brilliant. They were exhausted. And they were often navigating academic institutions that had not been designed to see them thrive.
We cried together. We rewrote chapters together. I coached them not just on sentence structure, but on how to trust their own ideas. I did this work for little to no pay. Not because I didn’t know my worth, but because I understood their struggle. I had been in their shoes, and I remembered the weight of silence.
I spent years sharpening my craft in the background. Perfecting my academic writing style. Co-authoring peer-reviewed journal articles. Reviewing manuscripts from Pakistan to the United States. I joined IRB committees, quietly observing, learning the language of research ethics and federal regulations. I watched. I listened. I waited.
Then I spoke. And when I did, people listened.
The more I said yes to the call, the more doors began to open. Not because I chased titles, but because I stayed faithful to the trenches. My work began to travel farther than I could. I became a peer reviewer for five international journals. I co-authored academic publications with global colleagues. I learned to wield language as both a shield and a sword.
Then the invitations came.
First from Lahore. Minhaj University asked me to move from peer reviewer to evaluator of PhD dissertations. That moment stopped me. Not because I felt unqualified, but because I remembered who they told me I was not. Now, I was being asked to weigh in on the scholarly work of future doctors of education.
Then Grand Canyon University invited me to serve as a Content Expert for their doctoral committees. They saw what others once refused to see. That I do not just edit words. I midwife dissertations. I mentor dreams. I coach scholars through storms of self-doubt until they remember who they are.
This is what it means to overcome a creativity block. Not to write without pause, but to keep writing when everything in the world says you should not. Not to wait for validation, but to become your own proof.
What began as a stinging critique in a college classroom has now become a global calling. From silence to scholarship. From rejection to reverence.
I am no longer trying to find my voice.
I am the voice.
And I use it to make room for others.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I am the founder and CEO of CJD Consulting Solutions, where leadership is not managed. It is ministered. I guide individuals and organizations into deeper alignment with their core values through ethical culture building, servant leadership, and legacy-centered coaching. My work lives at the intersection of scholarship, soul, and systems.
I have spent 15 years supporting doctoral students, particularly Black and Brown learners, in navigating the academic terrain with clarity, confidence, and cultural integrity. What began as editing and coaching has become a global ministry of writing mentorship. I now serve as a Foreign Reviewer for six universities in Pakistan. Most recently, I was appointed as an Evaluator of PhD research at Minhaj University and a Content Expert for Grand Canyon University. These roles are not titles to me. They are sacred trust.
What excites me most is witnessing others reclaim their voice and leadership on their own terms. Whether it is through a revised dissertation chapter or a published peer-reviewed article, I consider each milestone a sacred moment of becoming.
Professionally, I am guided by three proprietary frameworks that reflect my lived experience and leadership vision.
S.E.R.V.E.™
A corporate leadership methodology for building trust-based systems
The Within™ Model of Leadership
A pathway of emotional intelligence, ethical clarity, and inner transformation
The Amplified Leader™
A platform centering Black women’s leadership, movement building, and voice
These frameworks have formed the foundation of my consulting, teaching, and publications. I have authored three books, edited one academic volume, and contributed to a growing body of peer-reviewed journal articles, often in collaboration with international scholars. These works reflect my commitment to ethical leadership, culturally responsive systems, and the evolution of global scholarship.

My current project, Leadership and Followership: Ethical Challenges in a Globalized World, continues this body of work through the lens of living systems, cultural wisdom, and ethical inquiry.
At the same time, I am writing the most personal work of my career. A memoir rooted in The Within™. It is not just a recounting of events. It is a sacred reckoning. A returning. A restoration of my voice after years of being told to shrink.
These frameworks are not new ideas. They are the clarified expression of what I have lived, taught, and led for more than twenty years. In 2025, through deep reflection, resilience, and sacred restructuring, I named what had always been present in my work. With the support of a trusted sacred strategist, I solidified these three frameworks and began refining them for deeper reach and greater clarity.
In 2026, I will be launching a new website and digital sanctuary that holds these frameworks as living invitations. Alongside that, a new Facebook community will gather leaders, scholars, and seekers who are ready to lead from within, serve with integrity, and amplify their voice without apology.
This is not a rebrand. This is a reckoning.
This is the work I have always done.
Now it simply has a name, a rhythm, and a home.
What I want people to know is this.
I do not teach leadership as position. I embody it as purpose.
I do not just coach students. I midwife voices.
And I do not build brands. I build legacies.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

When I reflect on what has truly shaped my journey, three qualities rise with profound clarity. They were not inherited. They were cultivated through fire, faith, and fierce intention.
Resilience
My resilience was born in the fire of being told I was not enough. It was shaped by moments when I was the only one in the room who looked like me. It was deepened by years of doing transformational work behind the scenes, often unseen and underpaid. To cultivate resilience, I tell those just beginning, let your obstacles teach you how to stand taller. Let them show you what you are truly made of. Do not rush past the pain. Sit with it until it becomes power.
Sacred Listening and Clarity
I learned early that confusion is costly. Not just in business, but in spirit. Over the years, I discovered that clarity is not loud. It is born in sacred listening. Listening to Spirit. Listening to others without judgment. Listening to the work itself and asking it what it wants to become.
Sacred listening taught me to trust my intuition, even in rooms that preferred performance over presence. Clarity became my compass. It helped me say yes with integrity, and no without guilt. It helped me serve without shrinking.
To those just beginning, I offer this: Make space for silence. Practice listening without needing to respond. Let clarity emerge through stillness, not striving. The best leaders are not those who always know. They are the ones who are willing to ask deeper questions and wait for true answers.
Systems Thinking
Leadership without systems thinking is like planting seeds without knowing the soil. Over the years, I have learned to see patterns, policies, and possibilities through a systemic lens. This has allowed me to design frameworks that are scalable, sustainable, and soul-aligned. If you want to grow in this area, begin by asking not just what is happening, but why it keeps happening. Trace the root. Then begin to build from there.
These three capacities, resilience, sacred listening with clarity, and systems thinking, have become the architecture of my leadership. They live inside every framework I offer, every student I guide, and every room I enter. And they are not just for me. They are for anyone ready to lead with wholeness and walk with wisdom.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

Books have never been mere information for me. They have been initiation. Sacred teachers. Doorways into deeper remembrance.
Among the most impactful were The Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes, Take Off From Within by Ervin Seale, Three Magic Words by U.S. Anderson, and A Course in Miracles by Helen Schucman and William Thetford. These texts taught me that transformation is not something we chase. It is something we return to. They reminded me that thought is creative, that healing begins in consciousness, and that the Divine meets us not in grand gestures but in quiet alignment.
Others like The Art of Coaching for Servant Leadership and Conversations with God gave me language for what I already knew in my bones, that leadership is sacred work, and that Spirit is always in dialogue with us if we will only listen.
Don’t Believe Everything You Think offered a profound invitation to question the stories that keep us small and return to the truth of our own divine authority.
These books shaped my frameworks. But more than that, they shaped my life. Over the past twelve months, I have experienced exponential growth, not through ambition, but through surrender. I have become more still, clearer, and more aligned than ever before.
If I had only a decade left, I would continue this work exactly as I am doing now. Writing the memoir. Building the sanctuary. Midwifing others into their own voice and vision. I would spend my years amplifying love, serving with clarity, and anchoring wisdom into form.
And yes, I am open to sacred collaboration, but only with those who move from integrity, not urgency. I welcome partnerships rooted in spiritual intelligence, cultural equity, and ethical leadership. Those interested may connect with me through my website or professional channels. I believe that Spirit arranges the right alliances when we are walking in purpose.
So much of my journey has been shaped by words written in silence. It is now my time to offer words that awaken others into their own sacred becoming.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cjdconsultingsolutions.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drcrystaldavis
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lead.from.within
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cjd-consulting-solutions/
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leadfromwithin

Image Credits

All were taken with permission to post from those in the pics with other people on my cell phone.