Her Story
About Stephenie
Stephenie (Scott) Harris is an experienced healthcare executive and clinical leader, serving as Chief Operating Officer at CommuniHealth Services (Morehouse Community Medical Centers, Inc.). Since 2019, she has led system-wide operations across 17 service clinics, including seven school-based health centers spanning three parishes in Louisiana. In this role, she is responsible for ensuring efficient clinical operations, supporting frontline staff in delivering patient care, and maintaining accessible services for underserved populations. As a Federally Qualified Health Center, the organization primarily serves lower-income and medically underserved communities, and its leadership focuses on expanding access to high-quality, equitable healthcare. Her operational portfolio includes oversight of clinical workflows, program implementation, and care delivery coordination across all sites. She has led the integration of public health initiatives such as the Louisiana WIC program, which she successfully introduced into two full-service clinics to expand nutrition and maternal-child health support. She also manages ongoing challenges with electronic health record systems while supporting site managers, program coordinators, and nursing leadership teams who ensure the quality and consistency of care. Harris plays an active role in community health outreach, including preventive screening initiatives such as free Pap smears during Community Health Center Week and other periodic programs designed to reduce barriers to essential care. She is also engaged in academic and clinical research collaborations with Tulane University and Louisiana State University, contributing to initiatives focused on improving colorectal cancer screening participation, addressing obesity, and enhancing patient engagement. In 2025, she served as a co-author on a manuscript examining outreach strategies for sleep quality and obesity among low-income patients. She earned her Master's of Science in Nursing from the University of Louisiana at Monroe and brings over two decades of experience in medical-surgical, pediatric, emergency, and administrative nursing leadership to her executive role.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Stephenie
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to perseverance, hard work, and never giving up on my goals. I started as a single mother working in a paper mill with only a high school diploma, and when that mill shut down, I knew I had to find a way to take care of my baby. Going to LPN school changed my entire life. As I started taking care of patients, I wanted to do more - as an LPN, you have limitations, so I went on and got my RN while working full-time, and just kept going until I reached the top of my profession. I never thought I would get my master's degree, but I always knew I would be a nurse since I was a young child watching my aunt, a pediatric LPN. I loved watching her get ready in her white uniform with the hat and hearing about her passion for her work. Having a mentor like Molly Berry, an RN in the emergency room where I first started, was instrumental to my success. She took me under her wing and helped me learn how to be a nurse and care for patients in a small rural emergency room. She helped me become who I am today. My advice to others is to learn everything you can, set your goals high, and achieve them. It may take years - I started at age 30, starting a new career, and here I am at 53 just finishing my master's - but just keep striving, one day at a time.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Stephenie identified Molly Berry as one of the most influential mentors in her career. Molly Berry’s encouragement and mentorship during Stephenie’s early years working in a rural emergency room played a major role in motivating her to continue advancing her education and leadership capabilities.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My advice is to learn everything you can and set your goals high and achieve them. It may take years, and it did for me I started out at 30 starting a new career, and here I am at 53 just finishing my master's. But just keep striving, just one day at a time. Don't let difficult circumstances define your future. I was a single mother working in a paper mill when I decided to go to nursing school, and that decision changed my entire life. As you grow in your career, don't be afraid to want more for your patients. When I was an LPN, I had limitations, but I wanted to do more for my patients, so I went on and got my RN while working full-time, and I just kept going. Find mentors who will take you under their wing and help you learn, like Molly Berry did for me in the emergency room. She helped me understand how to care for patients and gave me the confidence to keep advancing.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenges in healthcare right now are staffing shortages and maintaining work-life balance. Nursing is always shorthanded, especially for bedside nursing. There are long hours and heavy patient loads. The most important thing I tell people is that you need to keep your work-life balance as equal as possible. Make sure you're spending time with your family, make sure you're resting, and you're taking your vacations. Don't pick up the overtime and the extra hours, because it's really not worth it for your mental health. On the opportunity side, we're seeing tremendous growth in nursing education - the School of Nursing at University of Louisiana is packed. The nurse practitioner program, which requires you to go through RN school first, opened several years back and is starting to grow too. We're also finding opportunities to expand services for underserved populations. We're adding specialty services like GI doctors to help patients who face very long wait times to see specialists when they have state or government health insurance. We're partnering with organizations to provide free mammograms and screenings, and we're expanding our school-based health centers to reach more children and families who need access to care.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The most important values to me are service to my community and helping people. I love helping people, and I'm committed to caring for the population we serve at our federally qualified health center. I'm not going anywhere because I've worked too hard to get here, and I want to continue helping the people in my community. I believe in providing access to quality healthcare for lower-income patients who can't get to a doctor. In my personal life, family is very important to me - I have 8 grandchildren ranging from 15 months to 12 years old, and I love spending time with them. I also value continuing to learn and grow. I just graduated with my master's degree last week, and throughout my career, I've been committed to advancing my education while working full-time. I'm also passionate about giving back through service on the Head Start Policy Committee and Advisory Board, helping children ages 3 and 4 get a start with education and supporting their families. Outside of work, I enjoy going to old car shows - I recently purchased a classic silver convertible Corvette, and I'm starting to take it to shows.
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