ABOUT LEIGH
Leigh Davis is an advocate for housing that is affordable and the protection of the environment. She is a fighter for working families, veterans, small businesses & farms, and historically vulnerable and underserved communities. A staunch supporter of unions and workers, Leigh served as a proud member of the Motion Picture Editors Guild (MPEG), IATSE Local 700, and The Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI).
Upon relocating from Galway, Ireland, to Great Barrington with her three children in 2009, Leigh enrolled them in Berkshire Hills public schools and started volunteering for local groups, including HospiceCare in the Berkshires, Volunteers in Medicine, People’s Pantry and Great Barrington Land Conservancy.
Leigh soon became a fixture in the Berkshire nonprofit and business sectors, working for the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, New England Newspapers (which includes The Berkshire Eagle), and Eagle Mill Redevelopment. During her years in the Town of Lee as Director of Development of Eagle Mill, Davis took a leading role in the $80 million revitalization of the historic 1808 paper mill, securing millions in federal and state funding for the mixed-use project.
Leigh’s career in local politics began on the Great Barrington Finance Committee in 2015, followed by election to the Great Barrington Select Board in 2019.
Currently serving her second term as vice chair, Leigh is also chair of the housing subcommittee, sits on the Lake Mansfield Improvement Task Force and Community Preservation Committee, and serves as the Select Board liaison to the W.E.B. Du Bois Legacy Committee.
Leigh is the communications director at Construct, the largest affordable housing nonprofit in the Southern Berkshires. In 2022, Leigh was instrumental in acquiring The Windflower Inn as a more flexible workforce housing option, leveraging her skills and experience to support workforce development. Leigh serves on the board of 1Berkshire and was appointed to the Berkshire Blueprint Advisory Council.
Leigh’s accomplishments on the local level include writing a successful bylaw regulating short-term rentals to free up long-term housing and bring costs down for full-time residents, spearheading a home rule petition to ensure residents retained local control over a proposal to re-establish horse racing in Great Barrington, and successful lobbying the state Department of Transportation to install a new safety system near the entrance to the local high school.
Leigh was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Maryland just over the District line by her parents, Lloyd and Mary Kay. Leigh proudly follows in her parents’ footsteps as an active public servant. Leigh’s mother was the dedicated assistant for over twenty years to the founder of the Peace Corps and the Special Olympics, Sargent Shriver. Leigh’s father is a Korean War veteran and is widely credited as the architect of the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday. Leigh's youngest daughter, a graduate of Monument Mountain Regional High School, is studying at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs with aspirations of being a pilot, and her two older children are at UMass Amherst and George Washington University studying Chemistry and Political Science.
Leigh has a Bachelor of Science degree from Ithaca College and a Master of Arts from the National University of Ireland, Galway.
