Mr. Harshbarger has served as program manager for MCCD since its establishment in 1998. In this role he has had primary responsibility for follow-up of specific development activities. He has specifically focused on the area of capacity building in working with the neighborhood association (Willing Workers Association of Central South), local churches, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Georgia and in supervising the work of Mercer University interns who have shown an interest in community development as service learning opportunities. Mr. Harshbarger has also taken major responsibility for the campaign of neighborhood beautification, identified early on by neighborhood residents as a high priority. He has also assumed the primary reporting responsibilities of the Center.

Mr. Harshbarger is a native of Macon, Georgia and currently teaches French at Mercer but has spent most of his career in the field of international development. From 1991-1996, he served as Field Office Director for Save the Children Federation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. As such, he was directly responsible for managing a multi-sectoral development program funded by various donors, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). During his tenure, the program grew in size from $1.9 million per annum to $6.9 million. Among the USAID grants under his responsibility were Gaza Neighborhood Upgrading, Institutional Development for Palestinian NGO’s, and Employment Generation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. These successful programs have provided a strong foundation for his current efforts in local capacity building and neighborhood revitalization in the Central South neighborhood. In addition, Mr. Harshbarger is fully conversant with issues of federal grant compliance.