Oswego’s Jessica Harris earns SUNY Chancellor’s Award
Jessica Harris, chair and associate professor of health promotion and wellness at SUNY Oswego, recently earned the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, recognizing outstanding work inside and outside the classrooms.
“In my 35 years in higher education, she is the best teacher I have seen!” wrote nominator and recently retired health promotion and wellness professor Sandra Bargainnier. “As her colleague, I have witnessed the impact of her teaching, advising and mentoring on our students and graduates.”
Whether teaching introductory 100-level courses for those just entering the program or advanced 500-level classes, Harris routinely receives outstanding evaluations from students, wrote Laura Spenceley, dean of the College of Education, Health and Human Services.
Harris joined Oswego’s faculty in 2015, and continues to provide excellent teaching, innovation and leadership — all while going above and beyond for students and the field.
“Jessica also goes beyond the typical workday for her students to apply their skills in real-world environments,” Bargainnier wrote. “She can be found in a residence hall watching students present to first-year students at 9 p.m. or evaluating students as they educate the campus community on the quad, or present at SUNY Oswego in Syracuse for National Women’s Wellness Day.”
That dedication also led Harris to become chair of the Committee on Learning and Teaching (COLT), and creating a Student Advisory Board (SCOLT), “where students can be heard about what they believe can be improved or what is going well on our campus regarding learning and teaching,” Bargainnier wrote.
Harris also has served twice as acting associate director of Oswego’s Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT), as well as associate director of the Honors Program in spring 2024.
“She played a central role in designing and facilitating workshops, reading groups and breakout sessions that helped instructors enhance accessibility, equity and student engagement and learning in their courses,” wrote Distinguished Service Professor John Kane, professor of economics and director of CELT. “She is deeply engaged in the scholarship of teaching and learning, as evidenced by her active research agenda, which includes numerous peer-reviewed articles, conference papers and book chapters.”
Harris is now in the process of co-authoring a COIL textbook with fellow health promotion and wellness faculty member Minjung Seo and Joshua McKeown, associate provost for international education and programs.
Previously, Harris authored an interactive textbook for the department’s introductory course, HSC 101, now in its second edition.
Harris also was the founding adviser of SUNY Oswego’s chapter of Eta Sigma Gamma, the National Health Education Honorary Society, which would earn the 2024 Chapter Excellence Award for its meaningful, student-driven accomplishments.
Her teaching has also been recognized by the campus with the President’s Award for Teaching, President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Advisement, the School of Education Perry A. Zirkel Education Faculty Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Teaching, and Residential Life Outstanding Faculty Recognition Award.
Harris earned her doctorate in executive leadership from St. John Fisher University, master’s in health science from the University of Arkansas and bachelor’s in community health education from the University of Maine at Farmington.
