Dr. King Davis was appointed professor of research in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin in 2014 and is currently working on the Austin State Hospital  (ASH) Archives Project. The purpose of this project is to assist ASH in the long-term identification, preservation, research, and utilization of the historical archives maintained from its opening in 1857. Dr. Davis is noted for leading the decade-long effort to digitize the archive of patient records of Central State Hospital in Virginia, historically known as the Central Lunatic Asylum for Colored Insane. This effort won him recognition by the American Psychiatric Association, which awarded Dr. Davis the Benjamin Rush Award in 2019, given for outstanding contributions to the history of psychiatry.  Prior to his work, Davis was the inaugural director of the Institute for Urban Policy Research & Analysis and holder of the Mike Hogg Endowed Chair in urban affairs at the University of Texas at Austin from 2011 to 2014. Prior to this role, he served as executive director of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health from 2003 to 2008. He held the Robert Lee Sutherland Endowed Chair in Mental Health and Social Policy at the University of Texas at Austin, School of Social Work from 2000 to 2008. He received the Excellence in Teaching Award from the University of Texas at Austin in 2001. Dr. Davis was a professor of Public Mental Health Policy and Planning at the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, from 1984 to 2000. From 1998 to 1999, he was the holder of the William and Camille Cosby Chair at Howard University in Washington D.C.