Patricia Harrison

Patricia de Stacy Harrison is the president and chief executive officer of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in the United States. Her candidacy arose with backing from CPB chairman Kenneth Tomlinson following a CPB Inspector General report that Kenneth Tomlinson, then chair of the CPB, used "political tests" to select a president/CEO with conservative viewpoints.

Harrison is a native of Brooklyn, New York, and a graduate of the School of International Service of American University in Washington, D.C.

In 1973 she co-founded the PR agency the E. Bruce Harrison Company with her husband E. Bruce Harrison. While working with the company, which was sold in a merger deal in 1996, "she created and directed programs in the public interest comprising diverse stakeholder groups, including the National Environmental Development Association, a partnership of labor, agriculture and industry working for better environmental solutions together."

George H. W. Bush appointed Harrison to the President's Export Council in the U.S. Department of Commerce in 1990. She was elected co-chair of the Republican National Committee in 1997, serving until 2001, when she was appointed to the post of Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Harrison's public relations skills were called upon to help with the U.S. government's public diplomacy program during the Iraq war:

As Acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy during the Iraq conflict, Ms. Harrison also collaborated with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to bring the Iraq National Symphony Orchestra to Washington, and she has initiated a comprehensive renewal of the Baghdad National Museum.

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