Jean Wahl Harris earned all three of her college degrees from the State University of New York, at Binghamton; her Bachelor’s Degree is in Law and Society, and her Master’s Degree and Doctoral Degree in Political Science. 

Harris joined the University of Scranton faculty in 1987. She is a professor teaching for the Political Science Department and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program. She is a co-founder of the University of Scranton’s Center for Ethics and Excellence in Public Service and also the founding coordinator of the University’s Ready to Run Northeastern Pennsylvania program. 

The courses she teaches cover United States’ local, state and national governments, public administration, public policies with a focus on those with gendered effects, and political participation. Her research focuses on women as political actors inside and outside of government. 

She is co-author of American Democracy Now, an undergraduate and Advanced Placement (AP) textbook on American Government, now in its eighth edition with McGraw-Hill Education. 

Harris is an active member of the League of Women Voters of Lackawanna County, a board member for the Progressive Women of NEPA, and she is involved politically in her home county of Wyoming, PA.

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