NOVA’s Award-Winning Faculty Ensuring a Top-Quality Education for Our Students
Dr. Martha Davis, professor of Spanish at NOVA’s Alexandria Campus was named 2022 Virginia Post-Secondary World Languages Teacher of the Year by the Virginia Board of Education. She will represent Virginia in March 2023 at the Southern Conference on Language Teaching conference in Mobile, Ala. In presenting the award, the Virginia Board of Education described Davis as a “dedicated leader in multiple capacities, including serving as chair of the World Languages Discipline Group at NOVA.”
In addition, Davis won the 2022 Marshall Brannon Excellence in Teaching Award by the Foreign Language Association of Virginia, and in 2020, the National Teach Spanish Day Award.
“I strive to provide my students with opportunities to form meaningful connections with speakers of the Spanish language outside the classroom,” Davis said. She regularly takes her students to attend plays at the GALA Theatre in Washington and to tour the National Gallery of Art.
She also serves as advisor for the NOVA Chapter of the National Spanish Honor Society and formerly served as advisor for the Spanish American Latin Students’ Association.
Immersed in Spanish culture herself, Davis studied at Spain’s Universidad de Salamanca as an undergraduate student at the College of William and Mary and returned to Spain to teach English to elementary and secondary school students after graduating and she studied in Guadalajara, Mexico, as a graduate student at Middlebury College.
Davis came to NOVA in 2008 and was named the Alexandria Campus Advisor of the Year in 2015. She currently serves on the NOVA Alexandria Campus Women’s Retention Committee, which mentors students to help them pursue their educational, professional and personal goals.
She is a dedicated Alexandria City Public Schools parent volunteer and participates in community activities in Alexandria, including serving as a Spanish-English interpreter for the speakers at the Día del Niño (Children’s Day) program in 2019.
Submitted by:
Bob Hull, NOVA Foundation, RHull@nvcc.edu