Mary E. Harris, Ph.D.

Dr. Mary E. Harris serves as the Vice President for Institutional Planning, Development & Evaluation at Austin Community College in Austin, TX. She leads the administration of college-wide planning, program evaluation, accreditation and grant development. Dr. Harris joined ACC in 2002 as the Executive Director of Adult Education and in 2008 she became the Executive Director of Grant Development.  Previous Higher Education experience was as the Assistant Dean for Leadership and Employee Development at Aiken Technical College in Aiken, SC.

Dr. Harris holds a B.A. in Radio/TV Broadcasting from the University of Dayton (OH), an MBA from Brenau University (GA) and a Ph.D. in Education Administration from the University of Texas at Austin.

While attending the University of Dayton (UD), Dr. Harris followed in the footsteps of two of her brothers, who also attended UD, by joining the Army ROTC program. In her senior year, she was promoted to the leadership position of Cadet Corps Commander. Upon graduation she was commissioned a 2LT in the Adjutant Generals Corps (Personnel and Administration) and received the Distinguished Military Graduate Award. Dr. Harris spent five years as an active duty personnel Manager for the Army Training Support Center (Fort Monroe, VA), Army Transportation Group (Fort Eustis, VA) and the Army Broadcasting Service (Washington, DC). As a reservist Dr. Harris helped establish the Army Family Team building program, a readiness training program for military spouses. Her last position as a reservist was as the Commander of an Army Public Affairs Detachment in San Antonio, TX.