Deputy Director
[email protected]
Catherine Harrison is the Deputy Director of the Health Emergency Response Office (HERO) at the University of Minnesota. In this role, she oversees the day to day management and operations of the office; develops emergency plans and protocols to respond to health emergencies; oversees coordination of the MRC program; advances the office's strategic partnerships and initiatives.
Catherine holds a BS in Nursing from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and a Master in Public Health from University of California, Berkeley. Prior to returning to the University in this role, she served as a Sr. Public Health Specialist in Emergency Preparedness for the City of Minneapolis, where she led efforts around workforce development, community engagement and response planning for public health emergency preparedness functions. Over the course of her public health career she has worked on everything from occupational health education with undocumented day laborers, to community based participatory research on toxic stress, to capacity building and advocacy for climate change, and always on health equity. She has experience in academic, government, community-based, and non-profit settings, including as co-founder and Executive Director of Rural Health Care Initiative, a maternal-child health organization in Sierra Leone. Her main areas of interest and expertise are program design and management, organizational development, and community-based organizing for health justice.