Hester A. Davis holds has two MA degrees--one in Social and Technical Assistance from Haverford College in Pennsylvania and one in Anthropology from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. In 1959 she accepted a position with the University of Arkansas Museum, where she served first as Preparator and then as Assistant Director. In 1967, with the creation of the Arkansas Archeological Survey, she was appointed State Archeologist, a position in which she served until her retirement in 1999. She also taught in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Arkansas, among other things creating and teaching a course in Public Archaeology for 10 years. She retired as a full professor. She has served as a board member or officer of the Society for American Archaeology, Register of Professional Archaeologists, Archaeological Institute of America, and U.S. National Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites, among others.