Kirk Harris

Education

• BA, Rutgers College, Rutgers University
• M.P.A., Martin School of Public Administration and Public Policy, University of Kentucky
• J.D., Thomas Jefferson Law School
• Ph.D., City and Regional Planning, Cornell University

Biography

Dr. Harris' academic and research interests are focused on racial and economic equity and the historic, systemic, and policy-based practices that undermine racial and economic justice. As an educator and a practicing planner, Dr. Harris has trained hundreds of planning students, has been featured by numerous organizations as a speaker on the topics of planning practice, racial equity, social justice, and has been engaged in opportunities to inform the general public about the importance of planning as a strategy for strengthening vulnerable low-income communities and communities of color. Dr. Harris has served on the National American Planning Association’s (APA) Social Justice Taskforce and served as the initial spokesperson for APA’s launch of its national social justice campaign.

Dr. Harris is the Founding Director of the Center for Equity Practice and Planning Justice in the School of Architecture and Urban Planning. The Center is the first of its kind in the nation to specifically focus on social justice and equity practice that works to dismantle the causes and mitigate the consequences of racial segregation, which replicate social and economic injustice in our urban and regional spaces.

During the 2008 Presidential Campaign, Dr. Harris served on then Senator Obama’s Metropolitan and Urban Policy Committee, charged with informing the campaign's public policy platform. During the Obama administration, Dr. Harris worked closely with White House staff and other national leaders on the intersecting issues of poverty, family strengthening, fatherhood, and community development. He has also testified before Congress on those intersecting issues.

Over the course of a twenty-five-year career, Dr. Harris has aggressively advanced policies and practices that more effectively support vulnerable families and communities. Dr. Harris has served as a Legal Services lawyer, served as the senior vice president and general counsel for Family Support America (a nationally recognized family support non-profit), and worked as a community development professional and neighborhood advocate for Shorebank Advisory Services (a division of the once nationally prominent community development bank, South Shore Bank).

In 2017, Dr. Harris was providing leadership for a non-profit organization, Fathers, Families, and Healthy Communities, which was among the organizations that comprised the Power of Fathers initiative that received Mutual of America’s highly coveted National Community Partnership Award. In 2025, Dr. Harris received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the National Partnership for Community Leadership’s (NPCL) International Fatherhood Conference, acknowledging and celebrating his more than 30 years of work on fatherhood, family strengthening, and community development. NPCL’s International Fatherhood Conference is the nation’s longest-standing fatherhood conference.

Dr. Harris is a proponent of youth development. The Wisconsin Daily Reporter named Dr. Harris the Architectural Leader and Newsmaker of the Year in 2007 for his youth-focused work related to the development of a charter public high school focused on urban planning and architecture that served vulnerable urban youth of color and encouraged their high school completion.

Dr. Harris is a member of the Georgia State Bar, the District of Columbia Bar, the United States Supreme Court Bar, and numerous Federal and Specialty court Bars.

Recent & Selected Works

Awards

• National Partnership for Community Leadership, Life-Time Achievement Award, 2025
• Mutual of America’s National Community Partnership Award, 2017
• The Wisconsin Daily Reporter Architectural Leader and Newsmaker of the Year, 2007

Grants/Funded Research

General Operating Support for Center for Equity Practice and Planning Justice, Greater Milwaukee Foundation, 2025

Technical & Research Reports

• An Exploration of Co-Enforcement and Co-Governance in Chicago: Implications for Funding the Equitable Implementation of Law and Policies, Supported the development of the report in collaboration with BECOME, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (November 2025)
• Harris, Kirk E. Growing MKE Fairly, Commissioned by the 1000 Friends of Wisconsin (May 2025)
• Healthy Communities and Equitable Implementation Interim Findings Report, Supported the development of the report in collaboration with BECOME, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (May 2025)
• Equity Analysis for Sth-175 Initiative, Commissioned by GRAEF (February 2025)