Honoring a giant of prevention: Beverly Watts Davis
This summer, CADCA gave its 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award to Beverly Watts Davis — a leader whose life’s work is the reason coalitions like ours exist. We want to take a moment to celebrate her.
At its 25th Annual Mid-Year Training Institute in Orlando this July, CADCA — the national organization behind the framework SSAY uses every day — presented its Lifetime Achievement Award to Beverly Watts Davis. It’s the highest honor the prevention field gives, and few people have earned it more.
For more than 40 years, Watts Davis has worked at nearly every level of substance misuse prevention: as an elected official, as a federal leader, as a nonprofit executive, and — maybe most importantly — as a mentor to coalition leaders across the country. Her career is a reminder that this work is never one job or one title. It’s a lifetime of showing up.
A career built across every sector
Watts Davis served as an elected official in Austin and Travis County, Texas, before moving into the federal government, where she was Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary and Director of the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) at SAMHSA. She led San Antonio Fighting Back, served as Senior Vice President at the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County, and today serves as Chief Officer for Program Support and Senior Vice President for Texas Operations at the WestCare Foundation, which works across 17 states and three U.S. territories.
Her ties to CADCA run deep, including service on its Board of Directors. Across all of it runs a single thread — the same one every coalition is built on: real change happens when public agencies, nonprofits, and communities work together. That’s not a slogan for her. It’s a 40-year track record.
Recognized, again and again
The honors along the way are almost too many to list: induction into the San Antonio Women’s Hall of Fame, the FBI Director’s Award for Community Leadership, three Secretariat Awards for Distinguished Service from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and recognition from the Texas State Legislature, among many others. She earned her undergraduate degree from Trinity University and a master’s in Human Resources Management from Webster University.
Why this matters here in Amador
You might wonder why a local coalition in Amador County is cheering for a leader honored in Orlando. Here’s why: the whole-community approach SSAY uses — schools, law enforcement, healthcare, parents, and youth working side by side — was shaped by leaders like Beverly Watts Davis. When we bring those sectors together at a panel or a community meeting, we’re standing on a foundation she helped build.
So from all of us at SSAY: thank you, Beverly Watts Davis. Congratulations on a well-earned honor, and thank you for the road you paved for the rest of us to walk.
Be part of the work
The whole-community approach only works when the community shows up. If you want to be part of preventing youth substance use here in Amador, join the coalition, come to a meeting, or follow us on social to see what’s next.
Details drawn from CADCA’s announcement, “Beverly Watts Davis Honored with 2026 CADCA Lifetime Achievement Award.” Read the full tribute at cadca.org. SSAY Coalition — Substance Solutions for Amador Youth — is a program of ATCAA, funded in part by a federal Drug-Free Communities (DFC) grant focused on preventing youth alcohol and marijuana use.
