Derek H. Davis, B.A., M.A., J.D., Ph.D., is a graduate of Baylor University and Baylor Law School and holds a Master of Arts in Church-State Studies from Baylor University and a Doctor of Philosophy in Humanities from the University of Texas at Dallas.  He is a former Dean of the College of Humanities and former Dean of the Graduate School at Mary Hardin-Baylor, Belton, Texas.   From 1995 to 2006 he was the Director of the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies, Baylor University, and from 1993 to 2006, Editor of Journal of Church and State. 

Dr. Davis is a fellow, director and officer of the International Academy for Freedom of Religion and Belief, serves on the advisory council of the Interfaith Religious Liberty Foundation, is on the advisory board of The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, is a member of the Religious Liberty Council of the National Council of Churches U.S.A., is a member of the Board of Experts for the International Religious Liberty Association, is listed in Who’s Who in American Law and Who’s Who in the World, and has served as Special Counsel to the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs.  In 2000, he was awarded the Human Rights Achievement Award by Freedom magazine; in 2004, the Honor of Merit by the International Religious Liberty Association for leadership in advancing religious freedom; and in 2010 the Abner V. McCall Award for Religious Liberty by the Baylor University Alumni Association.  In 2007 he was named Theologian-in–Residence by Kansas University.  He is also a former Baylor University football captain and all-conference receiver.    

He is the author of Original Intent: Chief Justice Rehnquist & the Course of American Church-State Relations (1991 by Prometheus Books), and Religion and the Continental Congress, 1774-1789: Contributions to Original Intent (2000 by Oxford University Press).  He is the author, editor or coeditor of fifteen additional books, including The Role of Religion in the Making of Public Policy (1991), Legal Deskbook for Administrators of Independent Colleges and Universities (1993), Problems and Conflicts Between Law and Morality in a Free Society (1993), Genesis and the Millennium: An Essay on Religious Pluralism in the Twenty-first Century by Bill Moyers (2000), Welfare Reform and Faith-Based Organizations (1999), Religious Liberty in Northern Europe in the Twenty-first Century (2000), and International Perspectives on Freedom of Religion and Belief (2002).  He recently published The Oxford Handbook on Church and State in the United States (Oxford University Press, 2010), and is now completing The Routledge International Handbook on Religious Education (Routledge Press, 2011).  He has also published more than one hundred fifty articles in various law reviews, academic journals, magazines, etc.  

His frequent magazine, radio, and television interviews have included those for Time Magazine, First Things, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, National Public Radio, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, CNN, the Fox News Network, CBS News, and ABC News.  In recent years he has been called upon by the U.S. Congress, the Texas legislature, and United Nations emissaries for testimony relating to legal measures needed to protect religious liberty in national and international settings.  He has lectured extensively before academic, public, and religious audiences on a wide range of topics including religious liberty (national and international), church-state relations (ancient, medieval, and modern), human rights, ethnic cleansing, the political role of Christianity and other religions, civil religion, nontraditional religions, religious dimensions of the American founding, law and morality, and religion and education.