Paul Harris
Professional Bio
Paul Harris comes to Penn State from the University of Virginia, where he was associate professor in the Counselor Education program and a faculty affiliate with the Center for Race and Public Education in the South. He earned his bachelor of science degree in Health and Physical Education with a concentration in Sports Medicine and his master's degree in School Counseling from the University of Virginia. He completed his doctoral degree in counselor education from the University of Maryland, where the program's emphasis was on promoting systemic equity, access, and justice in schools through counseling. He also holds a master of divinity degree from Virginia Union University.
Professor Harris’s research draws from his previous experiences as a high school counselor and focuses on three areas: 1) Investigating the college and career readiness needs and promise of underserved students; 2) Analyzing the identity development process of Black male student-athletes, and specifically the role of school counselors in facilitating their multidimensional sense of self through group counseling, mobile learning, partnerships with other education stakeholders, and other mechanisms; and 3) Examining the pre-and in-service school counselor training to ensure the implementation of comprehensive school counseling programs in K-12 schools that promote equity, access, and justice.
He is the creator of Men Passionately Pursuing Purpose (MP3), a program that exists to see Black male athletes thrive in and out of sport. His work has been funded by numerous agencies, including the NCAA. Harris designed courses that focus on counseling all student athletes from a strengths-based perspective, with one of those courses centering on the Black student athlete experience, specifically.
He currently serves on the editorial review board for the Professional School Counseling Journal and on the senior advisory board for The Professional Counselor journal. He also is the former president of the Virginia School Counselor Association and former member of the board of directors for the American School Counselor Association.
