Jessica Harrison, Ph.D.

Instructor, Sociology and Social Work 

Jessica M. Harrison completed her education and training in social work, gender studies, and sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Columbia University, and the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF). She is an experienced educator, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in sociology and social work and providing continuing education for clinicians and emerging health professionals. She particularly enjoys teaching about the sociology of gender, politics of the family, health justice and equity, and the social and structural influences on health and wellbeing. Most recently, she was a research fellow at the Osher Center for Integrative Health at UCSF; her research includes studies about the biomedicalization of perinatal health, approaches to mental health integration in perinatal care, improving working conditions for health professionals, and expanding access to community midwifery care. She is currently researching labor organizing and unionization among nurse-midwives in the United States. As a clinical social worker, she maintains a small psychotherapy practice in Oregon. She is an avid outdoorsperson and animal collaboration enthusiast, spending winters skijoring through the North Cascades with her sled dog and guiding llama packing wilderness trips in the Wallowa Mountains each summer. She and her family live in a cohousing community where she tends a flock of chickens with her neighbor and enjoys the relief, delights, and challenges of collective living.