Professor Spotlight

Abbey Spencer Public Relations Manager

Professor Sam Harris is one of the most beloved professors in the College of Aviation. Every time I pass Professor Harris in the halls of the COA, he always has a smile on his face as he says “hi!” to any student he knows. His dedication to his students does not go unnoticed. I was lucky enough to sit down with Professor Harris and learn more about his career path.

Professor Harris is from Homestead, Florida and graduated form the University of Florida with a degree in Journalism in 1986. He was a Navy ROTC student, which is where he got his start in his aviation career. Harris graduated from college on May 3rd; and just three days later began Navy flight training in Pensacola, FL. There, he was given his first choice aircraft: helicopters.

Harris says “The reason I asked for helicopters was because I got a chance to fly jets, props, and helicopters all while I was in college; and when I was flying in the helicopter I stuck my hand out the window and I said “oh yeah, this is for me”.”

After he graduated, he chased submarines for three years. After this, he flew for special operations for 11 years, and notes that “just as I was getting good at it, I got promoted out of the squadron.” Although he was promoted out of the squadron, he chose to stay in the reserves until retirement.

During the period of time that Harris was in the reserves, he moved to Atlanta and flew corporate jets for 7 years. Then he flew for part 121 carrier, ABX for 7 years.

While working for ABX, Harris taught Systems and Crew Resource Management (CRM) for ABX. During this time, he was sent to Iraq not once, but twice.

“When I was in Iraq, I learned that life is short… it can be very short”. He went back to flying the DC-8 and DC-9 for ABX for a few years, but was not truly happy. “One night over Kansas headed westbound, I said “I can’t do this anymore”… So I started my own little business and 9 years later sold it.”

The business was a special operations defense consulting company. When I asked what was going on with the company today, Harris jokingly said “we sold it, it got swallowed up by another company, and that company got swallowed up by another company like a Turducken”. Upon selling the business, he was able to retire from the Navy and began his “Chapter 2”.

Professor Harris began his career at Embry-Riddle in 2016. He was an adjunct and regional manager for the Gaetz Aerospace institute, and stayed as the Deputy Director until 2021. Professor Harris is an Assistant Professor in the College of Aviation, and now teaches AS 356 Aircraft Systems and Components.

When discussing the challenges of teaching, Professor Harris states “The hardest part of teaching is making sure that I don’t let you guys down… you are depending on me ” Professor Harris’ dedication is something that does not go unnoticed. One of the best bits of advice Professor Harris gave during our chat was “the older you get, the more you find out that you are starting to spend more of your time taking care of other people… So the reason you have to bust your a$$ is because you have less time to be good at being [you].”