David E. Harris, RN, Ph.D.

David Harris received his undergraduate degree in Nursing from Salem State College in 1997. He was an intensive care nurse in Massachusetts before attending anesthesia school at the Johns Hopkins Hospital School of Anesthesia for Nurses, graduating in 1979. He worked as part of the Vascular and Thoracic Anesthesia Team at JHH for several years before moving back to Massachusetts to work as a Nurse Anesthetist. He earned his PhD at the University of Vermont Medical School Department of Physiology and Biophysics in 1990 studying the mechanical properties of single isolated smooth muscle cells. After a period as a post-doctoral associate at UVM working on the molecular physiology and biophysical properties of muscle proteins, Dr. Harris took a faculty position at the University of Southern Maine in 1995. At USM he taught Anatomy & Physiology, Pathophysiology, and Human Genetics until his retirement 2019 as a Professor in the USM School of Nursing. He is currently a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Nurse Anesthesia program at the University of New England where he teaches Physiology and Pathophysiology. Dr. Harris is the author or co-author on nearly 50 peer-reviewed articles. His current research examines how a deeper understanding of physiology can inform anesthesia practice.