The doctoral dissertation of a Brookhaven native educator has been included in a new research handbook.

Dr. LaRenda Janee’ Harrison’s dissertation on teachers of color in rural Mississippi is one of the chapters of “Handbook of Research on Teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers,” published this year by the American Educational Research Association.

Harrison’s work constitutes chapter 30 of the book — Voice and Visibility: Implications of Induction Programming for Teachers of Color in a Rural Mississippi District.

For the Brookhaven native, “This has been a long time coming.”

Work on the project has been ongoing since 2018 and Harrison is grateful.

“God is so truly amazing! I am so humbled that these researchers saw something valuable in my dissertation, and most of all — the voices of those educators taking part in the study and research with me — that it was worthy of a chapter in this book,” Harrison said Thursday.

Harrison dedicated the pursuit of her doctorate to her parents, Willie “Doc” and Clementine Harrison.

“They were, themselves, educators and instilled in me very early a passion for learning,” she wrote in her dissertation.

“My only heartache is that Daddy didn’t live to see it in print (in this new book),” Harrison said.

Harrison is a Brookhaven High School graduate, with a master’s degree in guidance and counseling from Mississippi State University, a specialist degree in educational leadership and administration from The University of Alabama, and a doctorate degree from U of A in educational administration and supervision.

She worked in the Brookhaven School District as an assistant principal, principal and director of alternative educational services, prior to becoming a bureau director for the Mississippi Department of Education and an adjunct professor at Belhaven University.