Faculty & Staff

Laurinda B. Harman, Ph.D., RHIA
Associate Professor and Chair

Dr. Harman received a B.S. in Biology with a concentration in medical record administration from Daemen College in Buffalo, New York, an M.S. in education at Virginia Polytechnic and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia and a Ph.D. in human and organizational systems at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California. She has been an HIM professional and educator for over thirty years and has directed HIM baccalaureate programs at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and The Ohio State University in Columbus. She also served as director of education and human resource development at George Washington University and as a faculty member in the health information technology program at Northern Virginia Community College. Her teaching and consulting expertise includes health information systems with emphasis on ethical/genetic implications, bioethics, continuous quality improvement, and organizational development. She has also been a participant on grants for interdisciplinary collaborative graduate education and community service-learning. Dr. Harman has conducted research on the health information, social, ethical and legal implications of the use of genetic information and genetic engineering when making reproductive decisions, and has made several national and state presentations on this theme. She has also had several articles published on this topic. Dr. Harman has also made presentations at international, national, state and local association meetings on the topic of ethics and health information management. She received the AHIMA 2001 Triumph Legacy Award for the first edition of her book, Ethical Challenges in the Management of Health Information and the second edition was published in 2006.