(916) 481-4488 [email protected]

Bill Davis

MPL, CPF, CTF, MTT

Bill Davis, MPL, CPF, CTF

Profile

Mr. Davis is President of WR Davis Collaborative, a leadership training, community and economic development planning, strategic planning, facilitation and stakeholder engagement firm established in 2003. William (Bill) Davis is the owner and leader of the firm responsible for project management, process design, and meeting facilitation.

Mr. Davis has extensive economic development experience working with rural and urban communities throughout California engaging their diverse and diverse interests stakeholders in clarifying direction, understanding why they are stuck or stalled, and developing strategies and action plans the stakeholders are committed to pursuing. His areas of expertise for creating jobs and wealth for communities include workforce and economic development partnerships, strategic planning, action planning, and keys to effective plan execution.

Employment History

  • President, Facilitator – WR Davis Collaborative.
  • Co-founding Principal – Sacramento Professional Facilitators. 
  • Vice President of Facilitation and Training– California Association for Local Economic Development.
  • Facilitator and Trainor – Kolbe Company
  • Co-Founder – Urban Insight.
  • Associate Director and Lecturer – USC Center for Economic Development.    
  • Senior Account Representative – American Lithographers, Mariposa Press and Wallace Computer Services, Inc.

Competency Areas

  • Stakeholder Engagement

Community outreach, public participation and policy development.  Large scale collaborations and coalitions involving multiple stakeholders.  Facilitator and trainer for collaborative action planning and implementation projects.

  • Meeting Design and Facilitation

Creatively design and facilitate large and small group meetings, retreats and critical planning sessions. 

  • Training and Development; Training Delivery

Trainer of Trainers in the Technology of Participation (ToP) Facilitation Methods, Strategic Planning, Organizational Facilitative Leadership training.  Train and coach facilitators to the master’s level in all aspects of facilitative leadership. 

  • Research and Data Analysis

Development, design, management, and primary and secondary data analysis from public and private sources, surveys, focus groups, key informant interviews, community processes.

Education

  • Master’s Degree in Planning – University of Southern California    
  • Bachelor’s Degree in Economics – University of California, Davis
  • Master level ToP Facilitation Methods
  • Appreciative Inquiry Facilitation Methods

Professional Associations

  • International Association of Facilitators (IAF)         
  • National ToP Trainer’s Network
  • American Planning Association
  • California Association for Local Economic Development

Professional Certification and Awards

  • AICP Award in recognition of outstanding attainment in the study of planning, University of Southern California
  • Certified Facilitator – International Association of Facilitators (IAF)
  • Mentor Trainer – National ToP Trainer’s Network
  • Certified ToP Facilitator –  Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA)
  • Certified Public Participation Specialist – International Association of Public Participation
  • Embodied Practitioner Certification – Intensive multi-year global leadership program

Partial Project List

  • County of Yolo Permit Streamlining — Managed and facilitated a stakeholder participation project to streamline the Yolo County permitting process. The project included facilitating consensus on recommendations by the inter-departmental Advisory Committee of Planning, Building, Public Works, Agriculture, and Environmental Health. The committee met several times over a year. Their work was informed by a survey mailed to 350 applicants for permits in 2005 & 2006, and facilitated all-staff departmental meetings and focus groups for applicants and community members.
  • Yosemite Community College District Strategic Plan — Managed and facilitated college senior leadership team of 30 members creating a strategic plan for the college. The strategic plan included a Vision, a Mission Statement, and Strategies and Action Plans to effectively accomplish the Vision. The strategy was adopted by the Board of Regents
  • Sacramento County Mental Health Services Act Strategy – Conducted a stakeholder engagement process for the County to obtain input for the County’s Mental Health Services Act Strategic Plan. WR Davis Collaborative obtained consensus among 100+ participants that represent a diverse interests of the stakeholders on priority mental health issues of the community and recommended solutions. In the process, WR Davis collaborative intensively trained 10 of the County staff in facilitation and managed their contribution to the large-group facilitation process. By the end of the project, the stakeholders understood and owned the strategy they helped to create, alleviating potential conflict with competing service providers funded through the strategy
  • California Community Colleges Chancellors Office Business Analysis Program – Worked with the California Community Colleges Centers of Excellence and premier GIS software firm ESRI to develop a custom business analysis and mapping program to be used in the field by college representatives linking educational assets at the college with community business and industry needs.
  • Co-Founded Urban Insight – Urban insight was founded to deliver via the newly emerging World Wide Web geographic community and economic analysis for the purpose of community and economic development planning. The firm is an ongoing entity now specializing in data-base backed web design for planning and development entities.
  • Economic Development Strategies – worked with local government officials and multi-sector community stakeholders to create economic development strategies for the following communities and organizations (partial list):
    • Superior California Economic Development Corporation
    • City of Banning
    • City of Sacramento
    • Monterey County Overall Economic Development Commission
    • City of Lincoln
    • Central Coast Marketing Group
    • City of Grover Beach
    • City of Needles
    • County of Tuolumne
    • City of Twenty-nine Palms