SHERYL DAVIS has made a career in devoting her management skills to the development of communities. She currently works for Enterprise Northland, a charitable trust focused on promoting economic development and tourism in the northern part of the country. Her role involves working with people in local areas to develop economic goals that they can work on in order to improve their situation. Previously, Sheryl worked with the Ministry of Maori Development, Te Puni Kokiri, facilitating consultation processes between the Government and Maori.

Every year since 1995, Sheryl has been elected as a member of the national governing council of the Bahá'í Faith in Aotearoa-New Zealand, the National Spiritual Assembly.

Back in 1987, Sheryl made a "spur of the moment" decision to join her husband, Pae, in joining the Bahá'í community, because she had seen a major positive change in Pae's outlook on life through the influence of the Bahá'í teachings that he had been learning about. But it was to be some three or four years before Sheryl herself had an experience that gave her a powerful sense of personal commitment to the Bahá'í faith. This came to her through reading the book "Thief in the Night", by William Sears, which is about how the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh fulfilled Biblical prophecies. With her Christian background, understanding that Bahá'u'lláh fulfilled prophecies of the return of Christ, gave Sheryl an overwhelming sense of the truth of the Bahá'í message.

Sheryl and Pae's commitment to the Faith was soon put into action. One of their early accomplishments was leaving their home in Whangarei to live for a period in Wellington, in order to help build up the Bahá'í community there. Not long afterwards, Pae participated in a Bahá'í "World Peace Tour" of Russia, during which the touring group had an audience with President Gorbachev and presented him with the "Peace Statement" of the Universal House of Justice. A few months later, following historic decisions by President Gorbachev, the Berlin wall came down. The event confirmed in Sheryl's mind that Bahá'í confidence in mankind's potential for building a peaceful world is on the right track.

Taking part in the Bahá'í World Congress in New York in 1992 was a highlight of Sheryl's life. This was a gathering of thousands of Bahá'ís from around the world, held to observe the centenary of Bahá'u'lláh's passing in 1892. She also participated in the 1998 Bahá'í International Convention in Haifa, Israel, attended by members of National Spiritual Assemblies from around the world, for the election of the Universal House of Justice, and consultation on the global progress of the Faith. En route to the Holy Land she stopped over in London, where she prayed at the resting-place of Shoghi Effendi. After the Convention, she travelled via Turkey and visited one of the houses where Bahá'u'lláh had lived during his time in that country. She was deeply moved by the spiritual associations of that sacred spot.

In South Africa, in 2001, Sheryl served as a representative of the Bahá'í International Community at the United Nations World Conference against Racism. There, she observed the difficult struggle between factions to achieve consensus with one another in order to achieve a positive outcome from the conference. This gave her a heightened awareness of the value of the unity-building tools offered by the Bahá'í Writings. For instance, the concept of "consultation" and its associated principles brings about a new level of ability to solve problems through discussion in a mode of spirituality, instead of contentious debate.

When Sheryl first embraced the Bahá'í teachings in the late 1980s, she was the mother of young children. In those last years of the cold war, when nuclear annihilation was a very real threat, the Bahá'í Faith's vision of a bright future for humanity was tremendously reassuring. Her confidence in this vision has continued to increase. For her, to see that "the Earth is but one country and mankind its citizens", as Bahá'u'lláh said, is a life-changing concept. Sheryl says that one of the things it means for her is that "the size of the world is as big as your own head space."

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