Dr. Cheng Yan Davis served as Special Advisor to the President of Teachers College (TC), Columbia University on international advancement. She is also Senior Advisor to Shanghai Pudong Government (Executive Director of Westgate Group, Inc.) Before coming to TC, Cheng worked at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), where she was the Vice Dean of Graduate School of Education (GSE) as well as Special Advisor to the President of the University of Pennsylvania on internationalization efforts. Before coming to Penn, she served as Vice President of Drexel University.

While working at Penn for 17 years, she founded GSE International in 1993, the first international programs office among graduate schools of education of ivy-league universities. Under her leadership, the office has flourished and earned a reputation for excellence both at home and abroad, and plays a central role in promoting both the school and the university in the area of international development and cooperation. Cheng is the founder of Pre-College Program for Chinese High School students since 2006. The project is the first one in the US Ivy universities. It is a very successful project in US-China Education community.

Following an “East Meets West” philosophy, Cheng established education roundtables with China, France, New Zealand and Thailand, each dedicated to information exchange and joint exploration of the key education challenges facing each participating nation as it faces the demands of the Twenty-First Century global economy. She also pioneered cross-national education research through its groundbreaking Six-Nation Education Research Program and its successor, the Eight Nations Education Research Project, which bring together national-level researchers and policymakers from key nations in Asia, Europe, and North America to conduct cooperative research on education policy. She also initiated the APEC (9 nations) Math & Science Teachers Program, which was funded by the US Department of Education and the National Science Foundation.

In addition to working for education practitioners and students, Cheng has developed scores of specialized training programs for groups ranging from government officials and university presidents to finance executives and corporate CEOs. Among the most successful of these programs are the first training programs for CEOs and leading executives in the Chinese securities and mutual fund industries, created in conjunction with the Wharton School. Over the past ten years, the Penn-Securities Association of China Program and the Penn-China Mutual Fund CEO Leadership Program have trained about two hundred Chinese executives in the latest theories and practices of the U.S. finance sector. She also initiated and organized the US-China Future Leaders Program, which strives to develop a close relationship and improve mutual understandings among the rising young leaders of both nations.

Cheng enjoys close relationship with high-ranking officials and researchers in many Asian countries, with especially extensive and strong network and connections in China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan), Thailand, Singapore and Japan. Among those are Presidents of China, Princess of Thailand, and Ministers of Education and Finance sectors, governors and mayors of major cities. She is also actively involved in fundraising efforts with overseas alumni, friends of the university, and international businesses. She has successfully identified and developed many prospective donating individuals and organizations, domestic and abroad, contributing significantly to the increase in donations to the school and the university.

Cheng’s ability to organize, recruit talent, assess programs’ potential, anticipate professional needs, and establish and maintain high-level domestic and global connections makes her an outstanding leader in international initiatives. As a result, she serves on the advisory board of many educational institutions, corporations, and government agencies. She was Chair of the Board of New York Film Academy, Senior Advisor to Motorola and Oracle on international government relations, and Advisor Professor to East China Normal University. Besides, she has served as the Senior Observer for the Shanghai International Business Leaders Advisory Council for the past twenty years and Senior Advisor to Shanghai Pudong government. She helped to create the Pudong Institute of Finance and successfully recruit Harvard Business School, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia Business School, International Institute for Management Development (IMD), Switzerland, and China Executive Leadership Academy (Pudong China) as its initial academic committee. With her effort, Shanghai established friendly and cooperative relations with the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

Cheng’s extraordinary achievement in international affairs has earned her numerous recognitions, among which are the President Award for Excellent Leadership from Drexel University. Moreover, as the first international student studying at the Penn GSE from China, Cheng has earned the first–ever Penn GSE Alumni Pioneers Award. She is also the first Chinese alumni who has been ever awarded. In 2012, the Princess Sirindhorn of Thailand gave Cheng the Outstanding Leadership award for very successful the US-Thailand Education Round Table Project. Moreover, as the first awardee in the US, Cheng accepted the Princess Maha Chakri Award to commend her for leading efforts in US-Thai Educational Roundtables in partnership with HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn in April 2017.