UA Little Rock Alumni Spotlight: Cory Davis

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock alumnus is making the world a better place, helping people and businesses recover from some of the country’s worst disasters. As a partner and principal consultant at the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health (CTEH), a management, technology, and science-based consulting firm based in North Little Rock, Cory Davis has spent his career traveling across the country to help manage the fallout from disasters. When someone is facing the worst day of their lives, Davis is often the one to answer the call for help. “When we get a call, everyone is dealing with a crisis,” he said. “When you answer an emergency call, it is almost like answering a 911 call. These people are shaken up, and help is a long way out sometimes.” Davis has worked on hundreds of projects involving the release or threat of release of hazardous materials. He also worked on occupational health and safety issues related to industrial ventilation and indoor air quality as well as exposure to chemicals, asbestos, aerosol and dust. CTEH has emergency response teams, a plane and pilot on standby. So when a disaster strikes, emergency teams can often be on the site of a disaster in six hours or less. In his 17 years with CTEH, Davis has worked on many disaster scenes, including the World Trade Center after 9/11, New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, and, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, an outbreak of bird flu in 2015. During Hurricane Harvey, CTEH employees arrived in Houston two days after one of the most devastating hurricanes in the country’s history made landfall. In the midst of historic rain and floods, Davis and his co-workers provided air monitoring and other services for the U.S. Coast Guard and assessed chemical plants that had flooded. “There is so much going on,” Davis said. “We are going back and forth to Houston, and we have crews in the Florida Keys and Puerto Rico as well. We need to help our clients get people back home and get businesses back in business.”

From UA Little Rock to environmental health and safety hero

Davis worked full time as a legal assistant at Gilbert Law Firm while pursuing his Bachelor of Science in Environmental Health Science and minor in industrial psychology at UA Little Rock. As his time in college was wrapping up, Davis dropped off a resume with one of CTEH’s founders, Glenn Millner, who hired Davis as an industrial hygienist the very same day. “When I got to UA Little Rock, I was really focused on enhancing my knowledge base and learning more about science on the environmental health and safety side,” he said. “That education is really what the CTEH founders were looking for in expertise. When I graduated, I had the right background, the right education, and CTEH had the need.” With about 15 employees, CTEH was a much smaller company when Davis started working there in 2000. Millner, Jay Gandy, Phil Goad and Alan Nye founded CTEH in 1997, when all four worked as adjunct professors at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, but had zero experience in business. UAMS’ business incubator, now known as BioVentures, helped them get started. Davis joined three years later. By 2003, Davis became the first manager of the Toxicology Emergency Response Team, where he managed a program responsible for providing high-level scientific consulting in extreme situations, usually related to a catastrophic release of hazardous materials. He was promoted to vice president of operations in 2010. In his current role, Davis leads CTEH’s Major Projects Team and manages the response and recovery side of the business. He works to maintain a constant state of readiness and availability. This year, CTEH is celebrating its 20th anniversary and has 125 full-time and 200 part-time employees, including industrial hygienists; environmental health and safety consultants; and medical doctors. When the firm’s founders began looking to retire, they wanted to leave the future of the company in the hands of its employees. Since 2013, the founders have been selling majority interest in the company to its employees. In the end, Davis said the main goal of his job is to help people and businesses survive a disaster through readiness, response and recovery. “We help get businesses back up and running and help get people back in their homes,” Davis said. “That’s what we are really about. Recovery is about getting people back to their lives.” In the upper right photo, UA Little Rock alumnus Cory Davis provides air monitoring and chemical plant assessments in the Houston area after Hurricane Harvey hit. Submitted photo.