Jack Harris holds degrees in History and Political Science from Rutgers and was an undergraduate associate at the Eagleton Institute of Politics.  His career includes work in corporations, strategic consulting assignments and political campaigns. Most recently Jack worked as Louisiana Communications Director for Repower America.  He has held leadership roles on both congressional and gubernatorial campaigns and held multiple positions in retail strategy, strategic marketing and emerging technologies at Best Buy. 

Prior to joining Best Buy Jack built the technology research and knowledge management capabilities of the Mitchell Madison Group, a startup consulting firm that spun out of McKinsey and A.T. Kearney.  He is a certified competitive intelligence professional and attended Cornell’s Strategic Corporate Research Summer School last June on an AFL-CIO scholarship.

Jack is very interested in the ways in which organizational approaches towards sensemaking, decision-making and collaboration are mediated by individual and organizational identities.  He is particularly interested in questions of how stakeholders  build trust, shared meanings and responsibility for desired outcomes over contentious  public issues and the impact of social capital on voice and outcomes in stakeholder negotiations.  He is also interested in exploring the impact of the transition to online news sources on high information voters’ political choices.  Jack is excited to be back at Rutgers and hoping his blood will turn an even deeper shade of scarlet.  He chose the MCIS program for its interdisciplinary approach to the study of communication, organizations and social networks and the possibilities of collaboration with other Rutgers programs.

Jack serves on the Board of Directors of the National Child Protection Training Center (NCPTC) and is a member of the finance committee. He has two college-aged children and enjoys swimming, biking, hiking and yoga.