Contact:
Email: mharris@ru.edu
Academic Degrees:
Bachelor of Science, Psychology, Oklahoma State University, 1987
Master of Human Relations, University of Oklahoma, 1999
Graduate Certificate, Joint Forces Staff College, National Defense University, 2001
Master of Education Administration, Southwestern Oklahoma State University, 2016
Doctor of Philosophy, Higher Education Leadership, Liberty University, 2022
Dr. Michael Harris
Chair, School of Education
About Michael
I am Mike Harris, a retired Air Force Officer turned teacher, coach, administrator, and professor. I married my high school sweetheart, Robyn, from Guthrie Oklahoma, and we have two adult boys, Nicholas and Andrew. After a twenty-year air force career spanning from the end of the Cold War through the Second Gulf War, I decided to teach. During my military career I flew as an Air Battle Manager in AWACS, served in several headquarters, wrote joint policies on airborne reconnaissance, scripted several weapons tests on missiles and bombers, and ran a schoolhouse teaching air force officers and airmen how to employ the TPS-75 radar and control equipment in war or peacetime operations. As rewarding as my military career was, I was not ready to retire at the end of my twenty-year career.
As I was preparing for retirement I learned about the shortage of motivated, quality teachers in Arizona, where I was completing my military career. I applied and was hired to teach math and coach football and track at a rather large (2200 students Grades 9 – 12) high school in Avondale, Arizona near our home and the CPA firm Robyn founded in 2005. When we were offered the opportunity to come to Duke, Robyn sold her CPA firm and earned her teaching credentials in Secondary Math, English, Business, CTE and Middle and Elementary Education. After three years teaching and coaching at Duke, Oklahoma, I moved to the Oklahoma Panhandle as a principal and athletic director, first at Hardesty, and then in Guymon at the junior high.
I accepted a business instructor position at Oklahoma Panhandle State University in 2017. I was soon offered the Dean of Students position. I served in that position for nearly three years. In July of 2020, we moved back to the Oklahoma City area where I began in my present position as the Chair of the School of Education here at Randall.
