Driven for Equal Justice

When it comes to social justice, there's no limit to what Shelley Davis will do. She began working for important causes as a young adult with protests against the Vietnam War and campaigns for women's rights. After college, she got involved in ensuring people's access to Social Security benefits. As an attorney, Shelley has helped political activists defend themselves against illegal wiretapping; advocated for the employment rights of people with disabilities; and now serves as Deputy Director of Farmworker Justice, working to improve the health and safety of migrant farmworkers.

In November, Shelley received the prestigious Reginald Heber Smith Award from the National Legal Aid and Defender Association in recognition of a long list of remarkable accomplishments over her 25-years-plus public interest career. The award is given annually for extraordinary and successful legal advocacy, and advancing the cause of equal justice. "What's special about it is the recognition from your colleagues," Shelley says humbly.

Having lost most of her vision to retinitis pigmentosa, Shelley knows first-hand the importance of social advocacy. "I realize there are a lot of obstacles out there. It's quite easy to get knocked off the track," she says. "People need help, and often the help they need can make their lives extremely productive."

Shelley recalls one particular little boy whom she represented while working at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago. The victim of a stroke before birth, he had numerous disabilities. "As far as anyone could tell, he was blind," Shelley says. "He didn't like people to touch him. He had trouble swallowing and walking. Because he was three, it was difficult to gauge his abilities. In the public school system, they were just treating him like a blind child - they were in no way offering him the extensive services he needed."

Shelley and his foster mother worked diligently to get him the help and services he needed. Getting him low-vision training and rehabilitation was a crucial step. By the time he was 10, they had determined he wasn't completely blind. He had learned to read big print, and many of his other issues were being resolved. Though he had learned to use a cane, he learned to get around without it. "He completely transformed," Shelley says. "When you get people the right services, you can completely turn their lives around."

Shelley and her family have been steadfast advocates for their own eyesight, having made long-lasting commitments to finding answers to blinding retinal degenerative diseases. Her brother Joel Davis, also affected by retinitis pigmentosa, became a Member of the Foundation's Board of Directors in 1997, and was appointed as Senior Vice President of the Board in 2004. Their mother, Helen Davis, started the Brooklyn (New York) Chapter in the early1970s, and after moving to Washington, D.C., in the early 1990s, provided extensive volunteer support at FFB's headquarters in Baltimore. And everyone in the Davis family likes to stay on top of the research.

"I have just a little bit of vision left, and I am keeping my fingers crossed," says Shelley. "I am quite hopeful that one of these treatments - gene therapy or a retinal transplant - will come through for me. There are a lot of folks like me out there, and we are all following the research very closely."