The Reverend Dr. Brandon Harris is the Associate Dean for Religious & Spiritual Life at the University of Southern California. At USC he serves a diverse office of ninety religious and spiritual organizations and oversees the Trojan Church at USC, an interdenominational student-led congregation on campus. He also serves as Co-Pastor of Park Hills Community Church (Reformed Church in America) in Los Angeles, CA. Dr. Harris also serves as an affiliate of the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture.
Previously, he served as a Protestant Chaplain at Georgetown University, taught courses on African American religious thought, Protestant Theology, and Leadership, lived as a chaplain in residence, and was co-chair of the Martin Luther King Jr. Initiative.
Additionally, Reverend Harris is the youngest Senior Minister to ever lead the one hundred and thirty-two-year-old Peoples Congregational Church in Washington D.C. Committed to interfaith engagement and racial justice, he was ordained at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, the historic church community of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
A proud graduate of the first historically black college in the United States, The Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Religion. He earned a Master of Divinity and certificates in Black Church and Baptist Studies at Candler School of Theology at Emory University. While at Candler, he was a Robert W. Woodruff Fellow in Theology and Ministry and a recipient of the Frederick Buechner Preaching Award and the Charles Owen Smith Jr. Award for the exceptional promise of service in Baptist Ministry. He earned his doctorate with honors at the New York Theological Seminary in the inaugural Doctor of Ministry in Social Justice Cohort. His dissertation focused on gentrification and its effects on Black Churches in Los Angeles.
Active on campus and in the community, he is a member of the Candler School of Theology at Emory University Alumni Board, The Board of Councilors of the Amy King Dundon-Berchtold University Club of USC, the American Baptist National Network of Chaplains, Pastoral Counselors, Spiritual Directors, and Specialized Ministers, the Association of Chaplaincy and Spiritual Life in Higher Education, and the American Society of Church History.
A proud native upstate New Yorker, he loves all things fall, being near water, coffee, exercising, reading, and exploring cities.