Professor Dorothy V. Harris came to The Pennsylvania State University as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Human Performance in 1966. In 1970, she was appointed to the faculty as an Associate Professor and was promoted to Professor of Exercise and Sport Psychology three years later.

Harris was a pioneer and leader throughout the world in two areas: Sport Psychology and Woment in Sport. At Penn State she developed one of the first graduate programs in Sport Psychology in the country. During her tenure, she advised approximately 100 graduated students. She planned and conducted the first Research Conference on Women in Sport in 1972 and has been recognized throughout the world for her efforts in this area.

Professor Harris was the first woman president of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA). She was first recipient of the Women's Sport Foundation Award for contribution to women in sport, first woman and first American to be inducted as a Fellow into the International Society of Sport Psychology, and she also was awarded the first Fulbright Research Scholarship in Psychology to conduct research in Sport Psychology. She was elected Fellow in the American Academy of Physical Education, the Applied Sport Psychology Society, and the International Society of Sport Psychology. She was a renowned speaker and was invited to present lectures all over the world in both the Sport Psychology and Women in Sport areas.

Harris was presented the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1982. In 1989, she received a similar award form James Madison University. She was the second woman to be inducted into the James Madison University Athletic Hall of Fame in April 1990.

Dorothy V. Harris was a teacher, pioneer, and leader in Sport Psychology and Women in Sport.

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