In 1973 she co-founded a
public relations agency with her
husband, the E. Bruce Harrison Company, which was sold in a merger in 1996. According to her biography posted by the Bush administration, Harrison "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." which worked closely with the
American Petroleum Institute and others to promote
climate change denial. The E. Bruce Harrison Company also designed the PR campaign for the
Global Climate Coalition, the largest and most prominent industry advocate in international climate negotiations against climate action. E. Bruce Harrison Company's greatest success, according to journalist Jane McMullen, was in mounting industry opposition to the
Kyoto Protocol and preventing the United States from ever ratifying it.
George H. W. Bush appointed Harrison to the
President's Export Council in the
United States 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. Under Harrison's direction, the
State Department initiated the CultureConnect program in which American celebrities including
YoYo Ma,
Denyce Graves,
Doris Roberts and
Frank McCourt acted as "cultural ambassadors" in trips to
Pakistan,
Russia,
Israel, and other countries. In June 2005, Harrison was appointed president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, despite allegations of bias and having no background or experience in broadcasting. Later that year, the process by which she was selected was called into question by a report from the Inspector General of the CPB. The report concluded that then-CPB chairman
Kenneth Tomlinson "was strongly motivated by political considerations in filling the president/CEO position". Tomlinson resigned from the CPB board on November 4, 2005 and was replaced by
Cheryl Halpern. Harrison is the CPB president and CEO . In 2015, Harrison gave public support to the work of the
David Lynch Foundation. On January 5, 2026, the CPB board of directors voted to dissolve the organization. Harrison described the closure as necessary to "protect the integrity of the public media system". ==Books==