Harriet W. Giles is Director of External Relations Emerita in the Auburn University College of Human Sciences (CHS). Upon her retirement in 2019 after a fulfilling career that spanned 36 years in both faculty and administrative positions, Harriet was serving a dual role as CHS director of external relations and the first managing director of the Auburn University Hunger Solutions Institute (HSI).
As managing director of the Hunger Solutions Institute, Harriet worked with the executive team to build key public and private partnerships to leverage the necessary resources required for the HSI to meet its strategic goals and to achieve global prominence. For more than a decade, she oversaw the Auburn War on Hunger, a campus-wide programmatic and grassroots initiative which began in 2004 in partnership with the United Nations World Food Program (WFP); provided leadership and support for Universities Fighting World Hunger (UFWH), a network of higher education institutions worldwide that she co-founded with CHS Dean June Henton of Auburn University in 2006; and in 2014 helped to launch and expand Presidents United to Solve Hunger (PUSH), a consortium of 110 university presidents who are signatories of the Presidents’ Commitment to Food and Nutrition Security. Moreover, until her retirement, she gave leadership to End Child Hunger in Alabama, a state-wide campaign launched in 2012 as the first outreach initiative of the HSI.
Harriet holds a BS. in Early Childhood Education and an MS in Family and Child Development from Auburn University and a PhD in Child and Family Development from the University of Georgia. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the East Alabama Food Bank and the national Alliance to End Hunger and chairs the CHS Human Development and Family Science Advisory Board. Her awards include CHS Outstanding Faculty Member; the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award, Auburn’s highest humanitarian recognition; and the Pamela Wells Sheffield Award for outstanding service and commitment to Auburn University and the Auburn family.