Dr. Brandonn Harris is in his 13th year at Georgia Southern University where he currently serves as a Professor of Sport and Exercise Psychology and the Graduate Program Director in the Department of Health Sciences and Kinesiology. He is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC), a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), a National Certified Counselor (NCC), is listed on the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s (USOPC) Sport Psychology Registry and Mental Health Registry, and was named a Fellow for the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) in 2022.
Brandonn is a founding member of the Georgia Southern Athletics Mental Performance Team, which is comprised of practitioners and administrators in sports medicine, counseling services, and sport psychology with the goal of providing comprehensive, holistic, and collaborative mental health and optimal mental training services to student-athletes and athletic department stakeholders. At Georgia Southern, he also teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the areas of ethical issues in sport psychology, psychological aspects of peak performance, sport and exercise psychology interventions, team dynamics in sport, and supervised graduate students’ practica and internships in sport and exercise psychology.
Brandonn enjoys maintaining a very active involvement in various sport psychology professional communities. Most recently, he was appointed to a 4-year term as the mental health and sport psychology expert for the National Federation of State Highschool Associations. During his 22 years as a member of AASP, he served on a number of committees including being recently elected to the Executive Board as the President of the Association. Prior to this, he served on the Certification Council and was Chair for two years of his five-year term in that group. He also served on AASP’s Ethics Committee for nine years and as Chair for four of those years, in addition to serving as the former coordinator of the Youth Sport Special Interest Group. He also previously taught the AASP-sponsored ethics course. Brandonn is a Past-President for Division 47 of the American Psychological Association: The Society for Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology and served in two other Executive Committee roles for this organization prior to his terms as President.
He currently serves as the Co-Director of Mental Training for South Georgia Tormenta FC, a team in the USL1 professional soccer league. As a practitioner, he utilizes an integrational approach to mental skills training and clinical mental health work drawing from various frameworks to ensure his clients receive the care and support that best suits their interests and needs. He continues to consult and serve numerous professional and collegiate athletes and teams, youth athletes, parents, and coaches on a variety of sport psychology-related topics. As a researcher, he has conducted and published several book chapters, peer-reviewed publications, and delivered numerous national and international presentations. Brandonn obtained his bachelor’s degree in exercise science with a sport psychology specialization from Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri.
Harris holds two master’s degrees with one in sport and exercise psychology and the other in counseling, both from West Virginia University. His Ph.D. in sport and exercise psychology was also completed at West Virginia University.
