Randa Harris

Randa Harris has kind eyes, and the kind of gaze that wells with empathy—for her students, for the environment, for the future. Her voice is nuanced: Though Southern, hers has a calming sweetness and wisdom to it. For the past 20 years, she’s taught Geology at the University of West Georgia and has worked for the University’s Center for Water Resources. Her life has been a call to service in science, and she’s making a difference in the lives of students and the West Georgia watershed every day.

Raised in Bowdon, Georgia, in the county where she works, she loves hiking and everything associated with the outdoors: the rolling hills, the creeks and rivers that run between them, and the life, human or otherwise. That connection with nature gave her a deeper understanding of the environment and centered her academic interests on science. After finishing an undergraduate degree in Geology at the University of West Georgia, she attended the University of Tennessee for her Master of Science, where she studied Georgia streams and how sediments loads affect them. 

Once she graduated, UWG hired Harris to work for the Center for Water Resources and to teach Geology. The center receives funding through a municipal grant that grants Harris and her student workers the money to analyze surface water. They monitor temperature, oxygen levels, bacteria levels, sediment loads, and elements in the water. 

Field work’s demanding. Sometimes cutting through briars and thick vegetation in the spring, the student crews climb down wild, grassy embankments trapped with roots to arrive at creeks that may not look like much to untrained eyes. Yet, the team knows just how essential these waterways are to the local ecosystem. Those waters are life. They check on the streams regularly like one might a relative, but instead of chatting an uncle up by phone, they get their information directly, by samples. Those stories are no less detailed. 

Harris and her team investigate water quality for Temple, Georgia, but historically, the center has examined many of the waterways in the West Georgia region. Summing up the quality of local watersheds, she said, “Overall, it’s doing well, and I can say this for many of the waters in Georgia. In the area, in western Georgia, we have better water quality than we have had in the past, especially the Chattahoochee. The Chattahoochee is in much better shape than it was decades ago.” 

Though she won’t say so, the work that Harris and her students do ensures that the local watershed is healthy. Her work as a mentor to future scientists also means that watersheds around the state and country have expert eyes watching them. Speaking about her students, Harris said, “They get a lot of great experience. It helps them to get their next job because they have lab and field experience.” 

Beyond the work she does at the center and the guidance she provides her students, Harris also takes time to area rivers and streams. This is quality time with her students, showing them by example how to care for and about the environment. She cofounded a nonprofit, the Upper Tallapoosa Watershed Group, in 1999. “It is super tiny, but we host river clean ups. That’s our main job. We’ve had one at least annually, other than last year because of COVID, but sometimes we’ve had four or five in a year. It works well because I have a student population right here at West Georgia.” 

Harris’ efforts to involve her community often leads students and other volunteers to realize the impact of littering on their watershed. “It’s eye-opening. One reason I love doing that with college students is because they get to look and see. Here are some empty Gatorade bottles or empty bleach containers.” I found myself surprised about what the group has removed from local waters as she listed weirder and weirder things: “You’ll also get—this is strange—but I get a lot of tennis balls, golf balls, volleyballs, especially when we do clean-ups on the Chattahoochee. We pulled out chopped-up cars before. We had to get a winch truck. That was a challenge. We found a unicycle. We found toilets, shopping carts, just about every kind of furniture.” 

Harris suggests that what she does is not special. She insists that anyone can make a difference in their local environment and watershed. She advises, “Don’t litter, all that stuff. Even if you think, ‘I dropped this far away from the river.’ It’s going to make it into the river by the time it rains. Definitely don’t litter. Dispose of chemicals correctly at your house. I always hear of people who pour their motor oil on a certain spot on their land. Don’t do that! That’s going into the water. Don’t indiscriminately use pesticides. Get involved with river clean ups, too.”

Looking to the future of Georgia’s watersheds, Harris believes population demands will make water quality worse: “We’ve definitely had a massive population increase that has affected that. I think that will continue to be a problem. One thing I personally believe is that people don’t appreciate water like they should. There are plenty of places on earth where you can turn on a water tap and water doesn’t come out, or it’s not a good quality.” 

In her laboratory manual, Introductory Geology, Harris writes, “Demand for water will only increase as population increases, making it vital to protect water sources both above and below ground.” Given her dedication to local watersheds, her students, and her conservation efforts, Randa Harris is a champion for science and West Georgia’s rivers and streams.