H. Michael Harrington

H. Michael Harrington was appointed as the Executive Director of the Western Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors on July 1, 2001. The association is comprised of 13 Western States and 4 pacific territories. His primary responsibilities are to provide leadership for the Western Directors with high priority regional initiatives and to provide management oversight of the western region’s portfolio of multistate projects that are funded through the multistate research fund and the development of functionally integrated multistate projects that include research, extension and academic programs. In addition he provides leadership for the experiment station directors with national activities through the Experiment Station Committee on Organization and Policy (ESCOP). He serves as executive vice chair of both ESCOP and its Budget and Legislative Committee. Dr. Harrington is a member the Board of Agriculture Assembly Budget and Advocacy Committee as well as a number of national and regional advisory boards and councils. He has served as the executive vice chair of the Farm Bill Committee, the CREATE-21 Committee.

Prior to accepting the Executive Director’s position, Dr. Harrington was a faculty member in the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at the University of Hawaii from 1985 to 2001. He was a member of the Department of Plant Molecular Physiology where he served as chair of the department. Dr Harrington also served as Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs from 1991-1996. He served as Interim Director of the Hawaii Institute for Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources 1996-1999, and as Interim Dean of the College 1999 to 2000. 

Dr. Harrington received a BA degree in botany from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and a MS degree from the same university in botany and plant physiology. His Ph.D. in botany and plant biochemistry was earned at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.