Judi Harris currently serves as Executive Director for the American Red Cross Mid-Michigan Chapter. In this role, she serves as the community liaison for the Mid-Michigan Chapter, which is based in Lansing and covers eleven surrounding counties. As Executive Director, Judi provides support to the vast network of Red Cross humanitarian and biomedical services. These include disaster response, blood collection, training services, and helping members of the military, veterans, and their family members. Judi also worked in International Services for the American Red Cross in the early 2000s. She was the American Red Cross health delegate in Haiti from 2005-2007. Prior to that role, she was an American Red Cross health delegate in North Macedonia from 2001-2003 following the Kosovo conflict. Judi also worked for a different organization, Partners for Development, in Cambodia in between the Red Cross jobs, from 2003-2005.Harris’ previous position in Lansing was with St. Vincent Catholic Charities, where she served as Program Director for Refugee Services for 14 years. Judi was a refugee foster parent for over 12 years and has fostered 10 children from five different countries (they are all grown up now, but she still considers them her children). She is one of the founders and a board member of the Global Institute of Lansing, a non-profit organization that helps refugee youth earn high school diplomas. She also helped to establish the All Faith Alliance for Refugees (AFAR).
Harris earned a dual undergraduate degree in International Relations and French from San Francisco State University and a master’s degree in Health Education from Trinity College in Washington, D.C. Judi was also a Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal, West Africa. Judi has over thirty years of experience in humanitarian services having lived, developed, and managed programs in Africa, the Balkans, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean.