NFCC Math Professor Daniel Harris

Leading the Way to Academic Excellence

MADISON, FL - Math and music top the list of Daniel Harris’ favorite subjects. He is an avid fan of music, film and traveling as evident by the collection of concert photos, signed band posters and the fascinating work of mathematical art by M.C. Escher that stretch across his office walls. But more importantly for NFCC, Harris is an outstanding math professor and leader to his students and fellow professors alike.

Harris joined the NFCC faculty in August 1991, after earning his master’s degree and teaching math at Middle Tennessee State University for five years. He quickly took the lead of NFCC’s annual math summit that invites middle and high school math teachers to campus for discussion and networking intended to boost communication and ultimately help high school students transition successfully to college-level courses.

“For nearly 20 years, we’ve held this meeting with area teachers,” said Harris. “We share our successes and concerns, and we’ve gotten to know the teachers that have many of our future students in their classes. It really helps to have these relationships and open lines of communication with our secondary school teachers.”

Harris is proud of his fellow professors and stands out as a leader among his colleagues. He has been elected to lead the NFCC Faculty Senate, the college’s faculty advisory board, for the past 11 years. “It’s an important advisory body and voice for the faculty to our administration,” said Harris. “We make suggestions to the administration on faculty issues and curriculum changes.”

Harris says the most rewarding part of working at NFCC over the years has been “feeling like we are all part of a family and seeing so many former students move on to success at four-year schools and rewarding careers.” Although much has changed since he first stepped onto the NFCC campus in the early 90s - “there were no office computers and we taught strictly on chalkboards; the graphing calculators came later; now we have SmartBoards in every room with graphing calculator emulators” - what initially drew Harris to NFCC, the friendly atmosphere, smaller campus, and collaborative effort to help students, has only gotten better with time.

“The faculty has always worked together so well,” said Harris. “It’s a great place to work!”

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