Marilyn S. Harrington, Ph.D.

Biographical Sketch

Marilyn S. Harrington is the Dean, School of Allied Health Sciences at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Dr. Harrington’s clinical background is dental hygiene and her Ph.D. is in Higher Education Administration from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. She has spent the last thirty years in dental, dental hygiene, nursing and allied health education. She has published in professional journals on such topics as problem-based learning, dento-facial trauma, injury surveillance, workforce shortages, allied health leadership and research productivity. She has been invited or selected to give over 80 presentations nationwide and published seventeen articles.

She was one member of a team that wrote and received a $17 million Department of Defense research grant on the outcomes of disease management of congestive heart failure patients. Dr. Harrington was awarded the largest Health Services and Resources Administration (HRSA) for curriculum development in Bioterrorism and Public Health Emergencies. The $1.1 million project was for two years.

Dr. Harrington is responsible for nine different professional programs/departments in the School of Allied Health Sciences in San Antonio and Laredo, Texas. Border health issues, health professions education, diversity in health professions, health surveillance and specialized accreditation are key interest areas. She just completed a term on the Board of Directors of the Association of Schools of Allied Health Professions. She is a Commissioner on the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs and a consultant to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Dr. Harrington has participated in state-wide and county-wide health care reform efforts in Utah and in Bexar County, Texas. She was one of twenty people on the “Health Care Commission” appointed by Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff and San Antonio Mayor Ed Garza. One outcome of the Commission’s work was the raising of funds to increase the number of students and faculty for nursing and allied health education programs.

Dr. Harrington served as Dean of the College of Health Professions at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah from 1993-97 and as a faculty member, Chair and Associate Dean at the School of Dentistry at the University of Missouri-Kansas City from 1973 to 1993.