Harrison earned a bachelor's in American studies from University of Alabama where she also completed a Master's in Social Work.

Graduation rates increased, Title IX complaints decreased, budgets were balanced, and philanthropic giving went up.

[4] During the same time period, protests on campus against the implementation of a California State University Chancellor's Office Executive Order on ethnic studies led to a CSUN faculty senate vote of no confidence against Harrison in 2018, which ultimately failed.

Harrison responded by appointing an advisory group which studied the issue and found that some of the students' allegations were accurate.

[4][5][6][7] Later, Black Lives Matter protests in Northridge during the summer of 2020 led to calls for defunding the police at CSUN, which Harrison rejected as impractical.