When she was 12 years old, Megan Davis says she had a big decision to make: "Do I stand up and educate people? Or do I sort of hide in the background? And my choice, with the support of my family, was to stand up and educate."

Davis said she was one of a few Jewish girls at her school in Tulsa, Okla., and her classmates had misconceptions about her. So she invited them all to her bat mitzvah and gave a speech on the "value of diversity and really appreciating and valuing differences."

Today Davis, president and founder of The Davis Consulting Group Inc., continues to lead others by helping them strategically plan their businesses and lives.

"There’s a way to create alignment in your personal life and what you do for a living," she said. "Sometimes people spend their whole careers working at odds, and that doesn’t make for a happy life. What I do is try to get those things in alignment, help them make those choices."

Davis first learned about group decision-making from her father, she said, who hosted quarterly "family council meetings." They gathered at his office’s board room, discussed problems and came up with solutions. Her family became a "board of directors," she said, and today they all continue to be involved with their communities.

"Everybody has a responsibility to do their part," she said, "and if everyone does their part, their little part, to make the changes and to really contribute to make things better, then we end up with a viable, thriving, interactive community, that people want to be part of, that they’re engaged in and feeling good about."

Just like when she was 12, Davis is motivated to help build her community by being a leader and caring about people from all walks of life.

"This planet is ours to love and appreciate it and use to a certain degree, but we have to take care of it," she said. "We have to take care of the communities we live in if we want our children to grow up in a healthy environment."

President and founder of The Davis Consulting Group

• Recent major business accomplishments: Leading strategic planning efforts among municipalities and other stakeholders for the commuter lightrail project in the Phoenix metro area and working with the Pascua Yaqui Tribe on its strategic plan for education.