Biography

Dr. C. Keith Harrison is Professor for the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program. He also is the founding director (2006-14) of The Minor that’s Major™ Sport Business Management Undergraduate Program. In addition to his role as Faculty and Innovative Curriculum Coordinator of the DeVos Sport Business Management Programs, Dr. Harrison also has served as the Associate Chair for Faculty, Research & Academic Affairs of the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program and was the Interim and Acting DeVos Chair in Fall 2014. In 2020, he served as a Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellow at the Hutchins Center at Harvard.

Dr. Harrison has contributed in the area of academic innovation and scholarship over the last decade to one of the most prestigious graduate sport business management programs. SportBusiness International recently ranked the DeVos Graduate Program as one of the “Top 2” graduate programs in the United States and worldwide. Dr. Harrison has taught leadership, diversity and sport marketing at the graduate level, and currently teaches diversity as well as co-teaches with Reggie Saunders (Director of Global Marketing, Jordan Brand) innovation and entrepreneurship in sport and entertainment at the undergraduate level. Dr. Harrison is the founding director of the UCF’s Business of Hip-Hop Innovation & Creative Industries Certificate, which launched in 2021.

Dr. Harrison is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. Dr. Harrison has over two decades of university research, teaching and service experience at the community college level (Cerritos, Fullerton and Cypress) and university level (Washington State University, Indiana University, University of Michigan, Arizona State University, and UCF). A former NCAA scholar-athlete that was a center on the football team and graduated from West Texas A&M University, Harrison went on to earn his graduate degrees at California State University (Dominguez Hills) and the University of Southern California. Dr. Harrison has numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters that all disseminated from the Paul Robeson Research Center for Academic and Athletic Prowess established in Ann Arbor (1998). Dr. Harrison was Co-Editor of the Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics (2009-2011) housed at the University of North Carolina (Chapel-Hill). He is currently Editor of the Journal of Higher Education Athletics housed at Oklahoma University. He also is the co-editor of a recently published book, “Sport Business Analytics: Using Data to Increase Revenue and Improve Operational Efficiency,” which is available on Amazon.

Dr. Harrison’s career focus is in a few areas: the identity of the student-athlete and professional athlete experience; diversity and inclusion issues related to gender and race relations in education, business, sport and entertainment; and the marketing of emerging multicultural demographics in the global environment in terms of fan engagement. Dr. Harrison’s brief list of clients/partnerships past and present include the NFL, the Minnesota Vikings, Oakland Raiders, Miami Dolphins, University of Oregon, Jordan Brand, Boise State University, UCLA’s School of Education, Wharton Sports Business Academy, UC-Boulder’s Business of Sport Certificate Program, Florida Citrus Sports and numerous intercollegiate athletic departments through his co-founded non-profit Scholar-Baller™.

Since 2012, Dr. Harrison has been the principal investigator/researcher and co-author with Scott Bukstein for the NFL’s “Good Business” series in terms of diversity and inclusion initiatives within the NFL as well as on female spectators and influencers of the NFL brand. Harrison also serves as the lead educational consultant for the Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality (RISE), which is a not-for-profit organization founded by Miami Dolphins team owner Stephen Ross. Dr. Harrison and Scott Bukstein are also responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive academic curriculum focused on diversity, inclusion, respect and equality in sport along with creating marketing and branding content for RISE. Harrison is a guest columnist for Sport Business Journal in the area of cultural innovation in sport business and entertainment management.

Paul Robeson Research Center