Dr. Harris served as a featured speaker and panelist at the American Institute of Architects AAH/ACHA Summer Leadership Summit 2026 – Bridging the Gaps: Advancing Health Care for All, held in Minneapolis Minnesota. The annual Summer Leadership Summit is a premier gathering for healthcare design leaders, government officials, and industry.

Dr. Harris’s presentation, “Building Environments of Dignity: HBCUs and Communities of Faith in Partnership for Health Equity,” explored a question that he has spent years working through: what happens when historically Black colleges and universities and communities of faith partner intentionally to close gaps in health access?

The built environment is never neutral. Where a clinic sits, how welcoming a waiting room feels, whether a community trusts the institution behind the walls — these design choices carry the weight of history and shape health outcomes for generations. HBCUs and faith institutions have long served as anchors of trust in Black communities. When architecture, healthcare, and these anchor institutions align around a shared mission, the result isn’t just better facilities — it’s dignity made tangible in brick and mortar.