“Welcome home, sister.”
Those were the words that transported Evelia Davis away from corporate life and wrapped themselves around the Grand Canyon University doctoral graduate, who will celebrate the completion of her doctoral program at today’s afternoon commencement ceremony.
It’s one of six ceremonies spanning today through Friday at Global Credit Union Arena for online and cohort students.
Davis, who was born in Louisiana, grew up in California, then moved to Phoenix more than a decade ago to take a job at Phoenix-headquartered PetSmart. She did all the corporate things, including serving as vice president and director of several departments. Before that, she held leadership roles at Mervyn’s as part of Target Corporation.
Then on a trip to South Africa and Zambia in 2012, she heard those words, “Welcome home, sister,” and six years ago, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, opened the Diaspora Collective, a hub of businesses at the historic Silva House, a 1900s-era cottage at downtown’s Heritage Square.
“My husband and I both love travel. We’re both from the South – I’m from Louisiana. He’s from Tennessee. As we traveled through Africa and the Caribbean, Brazil, you could see the connections between food and the culture and the music from what we grew up with,” said Davis, who notices the same drumbeats, sounds, dancing and food she grew up with.
“You don’t realize until you’re there or even just, my grandmother would eat oftentimes with her hands, and I didn’t know why. But being in Africa and watching people eat with their hands, that sort of all made sense.”
The Diaspora Collective celebrates the food, art, music and traditions of Africa and the African diaspora and does that through the Latha Restaurant and Bar, Soko Marketplace and Griot Foods, which features artisan hot sauces and pantry staples.
It’s in that mind space that Davis decided to earn her doctorate in business administration.
She successfully defended her dissertation, “Why Black Millennials Dine Out.”
What she discovered was that it isn’t necessarily the food that matters. It’s that they’re at a place where people are welcoming and where there’s a connection.
“Culture matters to them – that sense of belonging and feeling like they’re in places and spaces that get them,” Davis said. “That’s really important … it’s how they want to eat. They feel comfortable that people around them are accepting. They feel connected to the space they’re in. The overall experience is important. They don’t dine out to dine out.”
The other big piece that she learned is that millennials, the most tech-savvy generation, won’t connect with you if you’re not sharing the same technology space.
“Any business or restaurant that is not meeting them where they are is not likely to be successful because of how they get their information,” she said.
How they decide where to dine is different from previous generations.
“Social media, all of those things are really important – your website, word of mouth, is way more important than a traditional advertisement as far as them having an awareness and trust level with the information.”
There’s an assumption, too, she added, that a technologically-adept generation, such as millennials, don’t crave community.
“They do,” Davis said. “You still crave human-to-human connection at the dinner table, whether it’s with your family or with your friends.”
It’s just a different kind of connection to “a much bigger, broader world – we can debate whether that’s good or bad,” she said. “But they can touch way more people than I could as a kid watching my Westerns that I liked to watch.”
Davis wanted to pursue her doctoral degree because she always wanted to teach at the university level and do coaching and consulting work. A doctoral degree would give her that credibility.
She taught entry-level marketing classes at GCU for a time.
“I fully enjoyed it. I loved just sharing my experience and helping others learn about how to market, be in business and be a successful businessperson,” she said.
Now she’s taking what she has learned about millennials and how and why they dine out and applying that to her businesses, which she aims to make not just a dining experience but also a place where people can find social and cultural connection.
The Latha Restaurant and Bar is a contemporary pan-African kitchen featuring the culinary prowess of chef Digby Stridiron, a native of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, who focuses on West Indian culinary traditions and the African diaspora. He was named the 2014 Caribbean Tourism Association Chef of the Year and cooked at the James Beard House in New York City.
Latha’s menu focuses on unique dishes with African, Brazilian, Caribbean and Southern United States influences.
“People always ask, is this dish West African? Is it East African? Is it Caribbean? And I always say, ‘yes,’” Davis said.
Diners will find everything from a seafood stew originating in Brazil called moqueca to pineapple piri piri chicken. The chicken dish includes jollof rice, a Middle Eastern yogurt called labneh, plantain chips, pickled onions and arugula salad. The Dayboat Moqueca is rice grits, roasted coconut chutney, broccolini, chimichurri, pickled onions and the fish of the day.
The moqueca alone, Davis said, “You get the full African diaspora in that bowl, and that’s very indicative of how our menu is.”
Latha was recently included as a recommended restaurant in the inaugural Michelin Guide for the American Southwest, which debuted in August. It covers Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, with 64 recognized restaurants across 24 cuisine types.
“It’s an honor … we’re very grateful to be included in that,” Davis said.
Soko Marketplace, also part of the Diaspora Collective, complements the restaurant in embracing goods created and designed by Black artisans and makers from across Africa and the African diaspora. It offers teas, jewelry, West African Ankara prints and more.
Social media, all of those things are really important – your website, word of mouth, is way more important than a traditional advertisement as far as them having an awareness and trust level with the information.
-- GCU doctoral learner Evelia Davis,
speaking on her dissertation, "Why Black Millennials Dine Out"
Davis said what she has learned through the doctoral process at GCU is that she is an educator at heart.
“I am teaching. I teach every day, whether it’s with my team or the community,” she said. “So it’s part of what I do every day.”
What’s next for her is building a coaching and consulting business to pass on what she’s learned in the corporate world and in her education, “and transfer that wisdom to others and helping them build successful businesses that thrive.”
When she started her doctoral journey at GCU five years ago, she was working full time.
But she found flexibility at the university and a support system that helped her push through.
“GCU is really around being purpose-driven, and that’s really important to me, building a purpose-driven business and having a purpose-driven life, so alignment with my values.”
Davis said her dissertation chair, Dr. Deborah Wheeler, was top-notch.
“She’s an amazing student,” Wheeler said of Davis, “and a world citizen.”
As Davis crosses the stage today to receive her diploma, “As hard as the journey was,” she said, “it was worth it, and I’m proud of myself for completing it.”
GCU Manager of Internal Communications Lana Sweeten-Shults can be reached at [email protected].
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