Leadership
Ms. Gibbie Harris, MSPH, BSN, FNP, retired from Northeastern University, Charlotte Campus on January 1, 2025, having served as an Assistant Clinical Professor for the MPH Program. She previously retired at the end of 2022 from county government after serving as the Public Health Director in Mecklenburg County (Charlotte, NC) for five years. Prior to that, she was the Public Health Director in Buncombe County (Asheville, NC) for seven years and in Wake County (Raleigh, NC) for a total of 17 years. In addition, she held program manager roles at Wake County Human Services and the NC Division of Public Health. Earlier in her career, Ms. Harris provided leadership, management, and clinical care for a countywide hospice program and worked as a nurse practitioner for a rural health clinic in NC.
Ms. Harris’ public health experience encompasses leadership in clinical services, preventive health, case management, health partnerships, and population health. Her areas of focus have included community assessment, communicable diseases, health promotion and disease prevention, and community capacity building and development, with equity and inclusion as overarching priorities. She was involved in the development of North Carolina’s public health accreditation program and led three health departments through accreditation and reaccreditation processes. Her response efforts have targeted surveillance and treatment of communicable diseases as well as public health and disaster preparedness. She served as Mecklenburg County’s Incident Commander throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, collaborating with Emergency Management and multiple partners to meet community needs, and as Incident Commander for the Wake County Katrina Evacuee Shelter, coordinating services from more than 20 governmental, nonprofit, and faith-based organizations. Ms. Harris also contributed to developing consolidated human service organizations in Wake and Buncombe counties and served on the Human Service leadership team in Mecklenburg County.
Additional career accomplishments include building the first freestanding hospice facility in NC, leading the Buncombe County community to achieve the Robert Wood Johnson Culture of Health Prize, providing leadership to 16 county health departments and their associated hospitals in a regional approach to community health assessment and action planning, supporting strategic plan development for the Mississippi State Department of Health, creating the community benefit program (including assessment and action plan) for Mission Health in Asheville, NC, and designing and implementing an organizational restructure plan for Mecklenburg County Public Health. All of these efforts reflect her expertise in organizational development and community engagement.
Ms. Harris holds a BS in Nursing, a Family Nurse Practitioner certificate, and a Master of Science in Public Health, all from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
