Stories of Local Impact: Stephen & Tanya Davis, Lighting the way

Leaders & Legacies: Stories of Local Impact is an ongoing series brought to you in partnership with the Daily Herald and DuPage Foundation. It highlights the inspiring stories of local individuals, families, and businesses who have made or are making a lasting impact for our community through their generosity and leadership.

The series continues with Stephen and Tanya Davis of Wheaton.

Stephen and Tanya Davis bring light to those around them, in more ways than one.

The Will Group, founded by Stephen 40 years ago, has illuminated city streets and airport runways as a lighting manufacturer and supplier.

Both entrepreneurs and champions of charitable giving, Stephen and Tanya have founded nonprofits — Tuskegee NEXT and A Purpose By Design — that continue to shine, leaving a lasting impact in DuPage County and beyond.

To honor his many contributions, on Jan. 19, the DuPage County Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Advisory Committee recognized Stephen with the 2026 Open Doors Award at its annual Unity Breakfast at Drury Lane in Oakbrook Terrace.

“I feel like awards mean you’re done, and I’m not done,” Stephen said. And indeed, Stephen and Tanya are not done. Through their everyday leadership and volunteer efforts, this Wheaton couple continues to build a legacy rooted in integrity, innovation, and impact.

From Knoxville to Chicago

The importance of giving back was instilled in Stephen early on. One of seven, he was raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, by his parents William and Mary Davis, who worked as domestic help for a wealthy family. “I guess you would call us working poor, but we didn’t know that,” he said. “(My parents) taught me to be a giver. I would get my 23 cents for lunch at school and somehow they would give me nickels and dimes to give an offering at church.”

Stephen described their community as “very close-knit, very safe, and at the same time, very racially segregated.” Even after the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, Southern communities resisted integration. Stephen’s older siblings were bused 10 miles to a segregated school.

In 1963, Goss v. The Board of Education of Knoxville declared the school district’s racial transfer plan unconstitutional, opening public schools to Black children.

“It changed my path, because my (older) brothers and sisters were great athletes, but they didn’t get the chance. I was able to go to the school that was within walking distance … and participate in sports,” said Stephen, who excelled in football and received a scholarship to play at University of Tennessee. “My path has been different because of the giants of the Civil Rights Movement whose shoulders I stand on today.”

Stephen was an NFL hopeful and passed on an opportunity with the Miami Dolphins to finish his degree and take a job with General Electric. Though Miami went to the Super Bowl that year — “Whether I would have made the team or not, I don’t know,” he said — that decision set the stage for Stephen to eventually found his own business.

The way of honoring Will

In 1984, GE transferred Stephen to Oak Brook. In 1986, he took a contract with GE to start his own company, Electrical Resource Management, which would go on to become the first company in The Will Group. In 1992, he founded Lighting Solutions of Illinois, which eventually became TWG Infrastructure Solutions, a division of The Will Group that manufacturers lighting, EV chargers, and preconstructed bridges.

Today, The Will Group is run by two of Stephen and Tanya’s children: Joshua Davis is president and CEO, and Jessica Ashley Garmon is chief operating officer and general counsel. The “Will” in The Will Group is Stephen’s father, in honor of his life of hard work and integrity. “My dad missed his dad (Will) at Christmas and the holidays because he had to work,” Jessica said. “He made $100 a month sweeping floors and cleaning toilets, and he was able to provide for his family in such a beautiful way.”

The company motto is “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” and it has grown to encompass infrastructure, engineering, distribution, warehousing, and program management for the utility and construction industries.

The Will Group is the city of Chicago’s primary lighting supplier and provided more than 300,000 LED fixtures for the city’s Smart Lighting Program.

“Statistics don’t lie: Cities that are well-lit are safer, and … you inherently feel safer walking around in well-lit areas,” Jessica said. “The fact we can help light the city is something close to my heart.”

In 2021, the Will Group opened the K-Town Business Centre, a $20-million warehouse and factory in Chicago’s Lawndale neighborhood. In 2025, they added a second manufacturing facility.

“We were one of the first African American distributors to supply the lighting at the terminals at JFK Airport, and when you fly into Chicago at O’Hare and Midway, 80% of those LED lights are manufactured on the West Side of Chicago,” Jessica said.

They could have chosen a location closer to home, but investing in Lawndale was important to the Davises.

“There is truth to getting people a job where they can meet their daily needs. And then, see how much they’ll embrace their community,” Stephen said. He hopes that The Will Group’s investment in the neighborhood will inspire others to follow suit. “If we can create that ecosystem, it will pay off. … We are starting to see some others come in and some redevelopment. It’s not about me; it’s about our community there.”

Training future pilots

Stephen has dedicated years to government board service, first with the Illinois Tollway Authority and then the DuPage Airport Authority (DAA).

“He would always step aside and let other people be in the picture,” said Mark Doles, executive director of the DuPage Airport Authority. “With his background in football, things go back to ‘team’ all the time — we are one big team. … He always said, ‘It’s great to win, but don’t spike the football.’ His leadership and dedication and integrity are just paramount.”

Stephen’s involvement with DAA sparked an idea. “In bed one night, I was thinking, I’ve got this position (as DAA board chairman). How can it be more than just me?” he said. Having recently heard about the airline pilot shortage, his wheels started turning.

“My dad was also a Navy officer, cooking and serving officers in the Pacific Fleet … and he always told me about the heroic Tuskegee Airmen,” Stephen said. The Tuskegee Airmen were the United States’ first Black military pilots whose service preceded desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces. “I thought, could we bring kids from the inner city to the DuPage Airport and teach them how to fly airplanes?”

And so, in partnership with the Illinois Aviation Academy at DuPage Airport, Stephen founded Tuskegee NEXT in 2015 to provide underserved and underrepresented youth a pathway to aviation careers. The organization’s kickoff event welcomed 12 Tuskegee Airmen as honored guests.

The Illinois Aviation Hall of Fame inducted Stephen in 2019 for his achievements with Tuskegee NEXT. The program has expanded to enroll students from outside of Illinois and has trained more than 90 students, 97% of whom earned their private pilot certificates.

Farilyn Hurt, a first officer at Endeavor Air, participated in Tuskegee NEXT’s program in 2018. She remembers when the Davises hosted her cohort for dinner in their home. “It was just so inspiring to see an African-American family do so well not only for themselves but for the people around them,” she said. “They didn’t stop at becoming successful; they made sure they poured back into the community.”

Giving together

Stephen and Tanya met through mutual friends before he moved to Chicago. They later started dating and married in 1987. “We complement each other and we are partners in this journey,” he said.

Tanya’s father was also a domestic worker. “I grew up in the Black community of Shiloh, North Carolina, among working class families that were the servants for the residents of the Biltmore Estate,” she said. “My mother was a factory worker in Asheville … and my dad worked for a family as a cook.”

The Davises have seven children — Steve Jr., Jessica, Angel, Joshua, David, William and Tabitha — plus Rod, whom they call their bonus family member. When Rod was 12, he was paired with Stephen in a church mentoring program and later came to live with their family. They also have 11 grandchildren.

“Growing up, there was never an empty house; there was always someone there from the community,” Joshua said. “In hindsight, it was someone who had a need — a meal, a place to stay.”

Stephen and Tanya have always aligned on their philosophy of giving. “That’s one thing that we never argue about,” Tanya said. “If I say, I’m going to get groceries for someone who needs it … we just do it.”

This family value was ever-present in the Davis household. “I always remember my parents giving back,” Jessica said. “It’s been ingrained as a cornerstone of who we are to help others and that comes from (our family’s) humble beginnings.”

In 2006, they founded the William & Mary Davis Foundation, named for Stephen’s parents, to help structure their giving. “My dad would say, ‘Son, money is like fertilizer. If you put it all in one spot, it will destroy the ground,” Stephen said. “If you spread it out, good things will happen. Save some, spend some, give some away.”

Over the years, the foundation has supported Metropolitan Family Services, CASA Kane County, Quad County Urban League, and many other local nonprofits.

Leading with purpose

In addition to Tuskegee NEXT, Stephen has dedicated countless hours to board service with Northwestern Medicine West Region, Choose DuPage, and the Haymarket Center, a treatment facility for people with substance use disorders.

Tanya is also an entrepreneur and active volunteer. She has a degree in counseling and, in 2019, enrolled in Lenoir-Rhyne University’s Narrative Healthcare Certificate program, which trains healthcare providers to apply narrative theory to clinical care, inspired by the work of Columbia University’s Dr. Rita Charon.

“Rita Charon saw that technology was changing patients’ ability to communicate with their doctors … and the purpose (of the program) is to help doctors listen to their patients, through exercises in literature, writing, and art,” Tanya said. Understanding a patient’s story helps build empathy and trust in the provider-patient relationship.

Tanya has put this training to use as development chair for the Haymarket Center’s board of directors. “Working on boards, I’ve met a lot of people who want to take care of others, but that’s not what people need. They want you to walk alongside them,” Tanya said. She guides Haymarket clients in writing about their own stories and creating artwork for display at the Center’s annual fundraiser.

Tanya is passionate about empowering women and girls and serves as development chair for the Chicago Foundation for Women. In 2010, she founded A Purpose by Design, which offers career planning and financial literacy services to young women during an annual retreat in Knoxville.

She is also an author and recently published her fourth book, “Threads: A Tapestry of Life in the Black Community of Shiloh and Beyond,” chronicling her hometown’s history.

Tanya and Stephen’s children look forward to seeing them savor their next chapter. “I am so grateful for my parents and the legacy they have provided for me and my family,” Jessica said. “(They) are my heroes and my greatest inspiration. I hope this next chapter brings them more ease, more laughter, and moments where they can simply look around and feel proud and truly celebrated.”

• The Leaders & Legacies series is brought to you by the Legacy Society of DuPage Foundation. Suggestions for future stories can be sent to Kait Balsewicz, director of donor and community engagement, at kait@dupagefoundation.org.

Interested in learning more about how you can make an impact or create a legacy for your community and favorite causes? Learn more at dupagefoundation.org or contact (630) 665-5556.

DuPage Foundation is located at 3000 Woodcreek Drive, Suite 310, Downers Grove, IL 60515.