About Earl L. Harris, Jr.
State Representative Earl L. Harris, Jr., was first elected to the Indiana House of Representatives in 2016. He represents Indiana House District 2, which is within Lake County.
Harris serves as Assistant Democratic Floor Leader and on the following legislative committees: Ways and Means, Roads and Transportation, and Government and Regulatory Reform.
On Nov. 20, 2018, Rep. Harris was named Vice Chair of the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus.
Harris is the founder and owner of a television and video production company, Motivation Media, that produces marketing and communication videos for clients and programming for broadcast television networks. He has received two Emmy nominations for programming produced for FOX Sports Midwest. Harris has also produced programming for other networks, including PBS, and has served as talent in commercials and videos.
Harris is also founder and owner of a property ownership company Harvel which owns commercial and residential property.
Organizations Harris has previously been involved with include the Indiana Latino Institute, Noble of Indiana, Joy's House and the IPS Supplier Diversity Student Entrepreneur Mentor Program.
In 1992 he earned his bachelor of arts in Telecommunications from Indiana University. While there, he served as vice president of IUPUI Open Channel. In 2012, he earned his master of arts in Telecommunications with a focus on digital storytelling from Ball State. While completing his master's, he won a WIPB-TV grant that funded production of a documentary he produced titled "In My Skin: Shaping the Multiracial Identity in Indiana," which was broadcast on PBS.
During his collegiate years, Harris spent a semester each at WXIN and WTTV, producing segments for a community affairs program as well as editing segments for a live sports show.
Upon graduation, he worked for Educational Television Cooperative as the operations manager before moving on to work for Indianapolis Public Schools as department head and senior television producer/director for IPS Television/Public Relations Division and served as a mentor to students. From 1999 to 2007, he served as president of the Educational Television Cooperative. Harris also undertook a special project producer position in 2011 working on marketing videos for KPWR-FM Power 106 in Burbank, CA.
Harris is a member of the Board of Hispanic Caucus Chairs (serves as the Vice-Chair), Commission on Hispanic/Latino Affairs, East Chicago Urban Enterprise Association, Enterprise Development and Management Corporation, Indiana Black Legislative Caucus, NAACP, National Black Caucus of State Legislators, National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, and National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators.
