About me
Leon Davis is a community-based researcher, public health student at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, and educator whose work examines incarceration through the lens of the history of medicine and carceral health. He is a lead researcher with the Carceral Sickness Project, investigating how penal institutions have historically medicalized punishment and produced enduring psychological and social harm. His research integrates lived experience with interdisciplinary analysis to interrogate the relationship between medicine, morality, and confinement.
Davis also serves as a curatorial assistant with the Sing Sing Prison Museum, where he works with archival records and conducts oral history interviews to preserve and interpret the lived experiences of incarceration. His professional background includes co-developing the Paths to Success therapeutic reentry program with Hudson Link, facilitating with the Alternatives to Violence Program, and practicing as an ABA behavioral therapist. He is the recipient of the Brian Fisher Award for his advocacy and civic engagement in advancing judicial change.
