A connector and community builder in every way, Valerie Harrison prepares to retire
It’s a hot, sunny July afternoon, and Valerie Harrison, CLA ’07, ’14, is joined by a colleague, enjoying lunch at one of her favorite local eateries.
Harrison, who is set to retire from Temple University at the end of August, takes a moment to reflect on her nearly 25-year career at the institution.
“Community and opportunity have been everything to me. As a child, I always had the good fortune of a community, and so I take that very seriously,” Harrison says. While Harrison’s words were not intended to be prophetic, just minutes later, her friend Susie Herbert coincidentally arrives at the restaurant, offering a prime example of the community that Harrison has cultivated.
“Her daughter is coming to Temple as a graduate student in the fall,” Harrison shares while introducing Herbert to her lunch guest.
Herbert interjects.
“Because of you. She is going to Temple because of you,” says Herbert before explaining how Harrison helped her daughter navigate the admission and scholarship application process.
The encounter is illustrative of a theme that has been true of Harrison’s entire tenure at Temple. When you are on her team—when you are part of her community—there is nothing that she will not do for you.
“She is so genuine, and she validates the work we do as a community-engaged university,” said Shirley Moy, executive director of Temple’s Lenfest Center for Community Workforce Partnerships and one of Harrison’s longtime colleagues. “Val is extraordinary in her understanding that to achieve the mission of the university, it is also important to understand the community in which the university exists.”
North Philadelphia roots
While Harrison and her brother were raised in Mount Airy, she has always had deep affinity for North Philadelphia and the neighborhood in which Temple University resides.
“North Philly is home,” she said. “During the Great Migration, my parents’ families migrated north for greater educational and economic opportunities that they could not get in the south. Both of their families settled in North Philly, and they met there. While my parents eventually moved to Mount Airy, most of their siblings and families stayed in North Philly and lived their entire lives there. Holiday gatherings were always there, and we went to church in North Philly at Wayland Temple Baptist Church on 25th and Cecil B. Moore. North Philly really was the center of our family life.”
For Harrison, the life that she had while growing up was a beautiful one filled with family, friends and laughs. On long summer days, along with her brother and childhood friends, she could be found jumping double-dutch for hours and hours.
There are claims that Harrison was even a former double-dutch national champion, but she is quick to set the record straight.
“I was pretty good, and I think I may have been the champ on the block. But remember, this was one block on one street in one neighborhood in Philadelphia,” she said with a laugh.
While she remembers her childhood fondly, it was not without difficulty. At just 11 –years old, she tragically lost her mother. Her life was turned upside down, but she was fortunate to have a loving father, who balanced his work responsibilities with raising his two children. She also leaned on her community for support.
“He was consistent and reliable. He was a good man and a great father for my brother and for me,” Harrison said. “But we also had the good fortune of a community. So, the women on my block and in my community saw themselves as responsible for helping me to develop into a woman. My father also had amazing sisters, who saw it as their task to help inform my development.”
Arriving at Temple
After graduating from the Philadelphia High School for Girls, Harrison went on to earn a BA in economics from the University of Virginia before returning to the Philadelphia area to earn a JD from Villanova University.
She began her law career as an associate at the law firm of Morgan Lewis and then served as in-house counsel at Joseph E. Seagram & Sons Inc. and later ARCO Chemical Company. When she was ready to make a career change, Temple was a natural fit.
“I had a number of friends who graduated from Temple’s Beasley School of Law, so I already had a connection, and I knew about Temple from my time spent in North Philly,” Harrison said. “When I came here though, it was very familiar to me. Its mission and values aligned with my own. There was always a leaning toward equity, access and equality. That resonated with me. I knew this was a place where I wanted to be.”
Since first joining the university in 1999 as associate university counsel, Harrison has held a variety of roles, including senior associate university counsel; senior advisor to the president; vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion; and her current position of vice president for community impact and civic engagement.
Regardless of the title and responsibilities, she has always worked for the betterment of Temple University, understanding the important role it occupies as one of North Philadelphia’s important anchor institutions.
One of the individuals who knows this best is Katie D’Angelo, who joined the university as director of the Student Assistance Center not long after Harrison came to North Broad.
“I’ve been at Temple for 24 years, and Val was one of my very first professional colleagues. As associate counsel, Student Affairs was part of her legal portfolio, so she was my lawyer,” said D’Angelo, who now serves as senior associate vice president in the office of the chief operating officer. “She immediately took on the burden of mentoring me, and it very quickly evolved into a deep friendship.”
Together, D’Angelo and Harrison and their colleagues in Student Affairs would often have to navigate complex, sensitive issues. It was not easy.
“We were in the trenches. There were even times where we had to take some cases to trial,” Harrison recalled. “But the relationships we built out of that space are beautiful.”
At times, in this type of work, there can be difficult conversations. But that has also proven to be one of Harrison’s specialties throughout her career.
“Her leadership style has just made such an impact on so many people. When she’s on your side, she believes wholeheartedly in what it is that you’re doing and is the world’s greatest cheerleader,” said Donna Lamborne, vice dean for strategic initiatives and administration at the Klein College of Media and Communication and a longtime colleague of Harrison’s. “But what I respect most about Val is that she also tells you when she doesn’t agree or if she’s got concerns, but she’s there to help you figure things out.”
A gifted student, scholar and teacher
While Val spent many years serving as a dedicated staff member and administrator, she also occupied another important role: student, scholar and teacher.
Over the years, she taught courses both at Temple’s Beasley School of Law and its College of Liberal Arts, all while continuing to pursue her own education, including a master of liberal arts and a PhD in African American studies.
It was there that she was first introduced to Molefi Kete Asante, professor of Africology and founder of Temple’s PhD program in African American studies, the first program of its kind.
The entire experience left a profound impact on Harrison, and it is part of the reason why she has continued to be such a strong advocate for equity.
“One of the most meaningful and significant parts of my story is learning under Dr. Molefi Asante,” Harrison said. “He taught me how different people have different ways of being. Some overlap, but none is better than the other. The hierarchical way that people want to view others is destructive, and oppressive. And so that has been the premise of his scholarship. It fuels something in you to fight for opportunity, and that’s what he did for me.”
For Asante, the opportunity to serve as one of Harrison’s instructors was equally rewarding.
“Valerie Harrison did not enter the PhD program empty-handed; indeed, she came to our program with an abundance of knowledge, interest and experience. Among those gifts was a legal and fiscal understanding of how taxation worked in many places to rob some communities of effective educational institutions. Over the years, we have had graduate students with law degrees, but Valerie exceeded them in her analysis of societal structures that eroded agency in African American communities,” Asante said.
“As a person, she is extraordinarily kind and compassionate, open to debate and discussion, but always searching for the most ethical and human conclusions. One does not have to agree with her to admire her. She is a scholar and author whose keen insights will continue to enlighten us. I am pleased to count her as an authentic friend,” he added.
Harrison’s impact as a scholar can also be seen through the two books she has published: Color Him Father: Stories of Love and Rediscovery of Black Men, which was inspired by her own positive experiences being raised by her father, and Do Right by Me: Learning to Raise Black Children in White Spaces.
The latter was co-authored by D’Angelo and partially based on the strong relationship cultivated by the two. D’Angelo, a white woman, adopted a Black child, and was supported by Harrison during this process.
“She wrote one of the support letters for (my husband) Mike and I to become adoptive parents. She was instrumental in me becoming a mom, so anything I say about how much she means to me is not enough.”
The book, which was released in 2020, utilized both Harrison’s dissertation research as well as personal stories and anecdotes to outline best practices that can be used to help guide prospective parents. Today, it is now required reading for certain adoption agencies.
For Harrison, it stands as the highlight of her career.
“It’s pretty amazing. We wanted to help people, and we accomplished that. We have been able to help parents who are raising Black and brown children do so without so much fear and trepidation, while also providing them with resources to help them do it well. I am very proud of that,” Harrison said.
A commitment to community
While Harrison left Temple to pursue other professional opportunities in 2012, she returned in 2015. Very quickly, she found what has become the second act of her professional career.
While away, she served as general counsel for Arcadia University and Lincoln University before being appointed acting president at Lincoln in 2014.
“When I came back to Temple, then President Neil Theobald said, ‘Well, Val, you’ve practiced law before, but you were the president at Lincoln. Do you want to do something else now at Temple?’ I said, ‘What would I do?’, and it kind of evolved from there,” she recalled.
She took on the role of senior advisor to the president, where her role focused on strengthening the university’s efforts around Title IX and sexual misconduct, diversity, equity, inclusion, and various other compliance matters. Later in 2021, she was promoted to vice president for DEI and community impact.
As her role expanded, she pursued more community-focused initiatives. The Lenfest Center became part of her purview, and in 2024, under Harrison’s leadership, the university opened the Temple Community Gateway. In its first year, the Gateway had contact with more than 3,400 people, and its impact continues to grow.
Harrison’s commitment to equity has also been unwavering.
“She has been a champion for what’s right. She is not intimidated and does not keep her mouth shut. She will always speak up for what is the right thing with the interest of the university and community in equal consideration,” Moy said.
“Val is a leader of leaders; she’s a dedicated public servant with impeccable character, a brilliant scholar and a compassionate advocate. In many ways, she embodies what makes Temple great: She has the foresight to see a lump of coal will one day become a diamond, the vision to see how a pile of twigs can one day become a nest and the faith to know that an owlet will one day learn to soar, even in the darkest of nights. More importantly, she has the ability to make those seemingly impossible things a reality,” added Timothy Welbeck, director of the Center for Anti-Racism (CFAR). He continued, “For me personally, she has always been someone who has advocated for me, offered me sound counsel on how to approach my work and supported my work in every facet. She is one of the primary reasons we have CFAR. When the vision was articulated, we needed someone to make the vision a reality, and it was Val who made the vision a reality. It was Val who ensured the center could happen here at Temple.”
Programs like the Cecil B. Moore Scholars Program, Temple Future Scholars, Saturday College, the Temple Community Gateway, Owls for Philly and Temple On Board also all bear Harrison’s fingerprints. As a product of the School District of Philadelphia, she made it her mission to reinvigorate an academic pipeline program for students in Philadelphia public schools. It is no coincidence that in recent years, Temple has seen significant increases in the percentage of Philadelphia-area students enrolled at the university.
A connector and community builder in every way
While Harrison will soon retire, her legacy as a community builder is still growing.
Over the last several months, she has worked diligently to create a proposal to repurpose the historic Burk Mansion as a community engagement center that will host a range of programs and services for the North Philadelphia community. Thanks to Harrison’s efforts, that proposal has since made its way through the Philadelphia Historical Commission approval process.
Once open, the mansion at 1500 North Broad will serve as a permanent home to help amplify Temple’s work in the community. It is a fitting final triumph in an incredible career.
At a recent gathering, hundreds of Temple employees stopped by to wish Harrison well as she prepares to begin this new chapter.
At the event, Temple President John Fry presented Harrison with a special Owl award. This tradition and honor is reserved for extraordinary longtime leaders, a distinction that certainly applies to Harrison.
Prior to presenting her with the award, Fry summed up her impact on the institution.
“A connector and community builder in every way, Val has this unique ability to make every voice feel heard. That is her superpower, and both the Temple and North Philadelphia communities have benefited from her thoughtful approach to relationship building,” he said. “Just look around at everyone here in this room this afternoon. All of us have our own personal connection to this extraordinary woman, and each of us is a better person because of that. That speaks volumes.
“While we are delighted that you will now be able to enjoy a well-deserved retirement, please know that you will always be a part of this community, and we will always be in your debt for all you have given to Temple.”
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