Khalilah M. Harris serves as the Chief Strategic Advisor to the CEO at the Center for Policing Equity. Dr. Harris brings a unique perspective to the organization from an extensive career working to expand access to opportunity through a racial equity lens in community organizing, research, strategy development, collaborative organizational and system change, K-12 public education, education policy, youth advocacy, economic development, and building an inclusive workforce. Native to Brooklyn, New York and nurtured by Baltimore, Maryland, Khalilah is also a proud mother to three amazing children and daughter to Costa Rican and Jamaican immigrants. All of which grounds her work and shapes her global perspective. 

Dr. Harris served as the first Deputy Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African-Americans in the Obama presidential administration and later served in the Biden presidential administration as chief of staff at the US Office of Personnel Management. Between the two administrations she served as managing director of the K-12 education policy team at the Center for American Progress. Khalilah has been a contributor on cable news networks such as Black News Channel and MSNBC, and has published and been sought after as a reputable and knowledgeable source in a variety of news outlets including the Washington Post, Education Week, The 74 Million, the Baltimore Sun, the Hill and others.

Dr. Harris is a proud alumna of Morgan State University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in political science. Additionally, she obtained her law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law and later earned her doctorate in Educational Leadership and Organizational Development from the University of Pennsylvania. Khalilah is licensed to practice law in the state of Maryland and serves in support of a number of local and national civic organizations including as a life member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.