EXPERT ON:
◉ Church & Ministry Leadership
◉ Effective Communication
◉ Leadership Development
◉ Team Building & Collaboration
EXPERIENCE:
◉ Professor, Pastor & Bridge-Building Communicator: Professor of Communication and professional speaker who helps leaders and organizations reduce bias, rebuild trust, and communicate across difference with courage, clarity, and accountability.
◉ Transformational Voice with Lived Authority: Drawing from a powerful personal journey—from recruitment into white supremacy as a teenager to four decades of transformation and reconciliation—Dr. Harris brings rare credibility to conversations about race, polarization, and identity.
◉ Creator of Actionable Frameworks for Lasting Change: Developer of the R.A.C.E. Framework™ and the Harris Theory of Formational Reconciliation Communication™, equipping audiences with practical tools that move beyond good intentions to measurable, sustainable relationship-building and organizational change.
Dr. Richard C. Harris is a Professor of Communication, pastor, and professional speaker who helps leaders and organizations reduce bias, rebuild trust, and communicate across difference without fear. His credibility is rooted in an unusual arc: as a teenager in 1970s Indiana, Harris was recruited into white supremacy and rose into leadership. Over the last four decades, his life has been defined by transformation, accountability, and bridge-building.
Today, Harris equips audiences with practical frameworks that move people from good intentions to measurable change. His signature system, the R.A.C.E. Framework™ (Respect Differences, Accentuate Commonalities, Cultivate Interracial Friendships, Expand Racial Literacy), offers clear steps for disrupting bias and building durable relationships.
He also teaches the Harris Theory of Formational Reconciliation Communication™, a whole-person approach that addresses the deeper drivers of division: identity longings (Belonging, Dignity, Meaning), cognitive threat scripts, interpersonal practices, and formation-based sustainability.
Known for direct honesty, disarming warmth, and actionable takeaways, Dr. Harris speaks to universities, faith communities, civic groups, and corporate teams seeking a safer, smarter path through conflict, race, and polarization.
