Clarissa Harris
Director of Equity and Belonging
Clarissa Harris serves as the firm’s director of equity and belonging, based in Arabella’s Durham, North Carolina location. Clarissa manages, designs, and implements engagement strategies that center employee well-being and belonging for over 500 employees and other stakeholders across the firm. As an advisor and strategist, Clarissa guides all levels of Arabella leadership on how to integrate the needs, tensions, and experiences of the firm’s diverse communities into all aspects of decision-making, including both day-to-day practices and long-term goals and strategies.
Clarissa brings over a decade of justice-focused leadership expertise to her work at Arabella. She has a strong foundation in community organizing; cultural engagement strategies in the nonprofit, higher education, and for-profit sectors; and racial equity facilitation.
Prior to joining the firm, Clarissa served as co-executive director for the Center for Participatory Change. In addition to her experience as an organizational consultant, Clarissa has held formal diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and justice (DEIBJ) and other mission-driven leadership roles at institutions such as Warren Wilson College and East Fork Pottery in Asheville, North Carolina.
Clarissa holds a BA in English and gender and women’s studies from Hollins University and an MA in liberal studies from Duke University.