Dr. Harris leads Eskenazi Health, one of the country’s largest essential health systems and a force in public health within Indianapolis and beyond. She is known for spearheading bold initiatives to improve the social and clinical health of her city while advocating for public health on the national level. Her efforts to reverse the mortality gap in Indianapolis neighborhoods have been extensive, with patients receiving wraparound services tied to Joint Commission-recognized social determinants of health screenings, and targeted initiatives in three of the city’s most underserved neighborhoods focused on improving transportation, food access, safety and other barriers to health. One such initiative is a new 95,000-square-foot health campus that earned LEED Silver certification and won honors from the American Institute of Architects Indiana in 2025. Under her leadership, Eskenazi Health expanded and relocated an opioid treatment center in a neighborhood experiencing frequent overdoses, launched a new training center for mental health professionals, and proliferated lifestyle medicine programming across 10 neighborhood health centers. A practicing physician who has taught at Indiana University School of Medicine for decades, Dr. Harris has also championed workforce wellbeing, personally hosting annual employee appreciation events and greeting new employees at regular breakfasts and ultimately earning the system a Bell Seal platinum-level certification for workplace mental health from Mental Health America,. She serves as associate dean of Eskenazi Health Affairs and professor at Indiana University School of Medicine. She also serves on the boards of the Regenstrief Institute and the Indianapolis Coalition for Patient Safety, and previously chaired America’s Essential Hospitals. Dr. Harris has been recognized on IBJ Media‘s “Indiana 250” list of the state’s most influential leaders for four consecutive years, along with a career’s worth of honors dating back more than two decades.
