Instructor, Pal’s Business Excellence Institute
Dr. Harley is considered to be an expert on leadership and service learning. Personal excellence through leadership, service and civic engagement are personal passions. She has served as a consultant to over 30 other universities on leadership and civic education programs. She has written many articles and papers on leadership and service learning topics. Dr. Harley has had a national impact by mentoring leaders of other university leadership, service and civic engagement programs. She has taught 100s of seminars and courses in these areas for many years. She teaches programs to business and community leaders as well as the faculty and staff of East Tennessee State University (ETSU) and other universities. She served as part of the team that developed and teaches in the on-line master’s in strategic leadership for the state-wide Regents Degree Program of the Tennessee Board of Regents. This program is taken by graduate students all over the country. She is active in the community having served as a board leader for the Girl Scouts, Second Harvest Food Bank, local Senior Center, United Way, Chamber of Commerce, community youth leadership program, and regional economic development initiatives.
Dr. Harley is a facilitator/mentor for the Franklin Covey organization – certified to teach the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, 4 Disciplines of Execution, Focus, and Leadership Great Leaders, Great Teams, Great Results. She also is certified through the Pew Foundation to teach Community Trusteeship and Leadership Plenty, curricula frequently used in community leadership programs.
She is a lead instructor for Pal’s Business Excellence Institute (BEI). BEI is a part of Pal’s Sudden Service that teaches proven world-class performance excellence and management practices to organizations all over the country. Pal’s Sudden Service is the 2001 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award winner and twice the level 4 winner of the Tennessee Quality Award. Pal’s is considered my many in the industry as one of the best managed companies in the country.
For the last 20 years, Dr. Harley worked for East Tennessee State University. She is currently the Assistant Vice-President for Center for Community Engagement, Learning and Leadership, a civic leadership Center that she founded at the University. She developed and directs the minor in Leadership Studies, and teaches the capstone leadership course. She is among the top rated faculty members in the Colleges of Business and Education. Under her leadership, ETSU civic leadership programs have received national recognition many times over the last 20 years.
Deborah holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis from East Tennessee State University, a master’s in counseling and a bachelor’s in mathematics from the University of South Florida.
