A Future of Impact: Jerry Harris

When Jerry Harris got in trouble at elementary school, he knew exactly where he was headed. Growing up on a farm near Northwood, Iowa, he spent countless afternoons at the local Lutheran Home, where his grandparents lived. If he missed the bus or landed in detention, he didn’t wait in the hallway for his parents to come get him; he walked straight to the nursing home. The staff knew him. The residents welcomed him. And while most kids might have felt uneasy among wheelchairs and walkers, Jerry felt completely at home. “Behind every smile was a story,” he recalls, and even then, he understood the quiet power of simply showing up for someone.

He didn’t know it but those after-school visits were the first chapter of a story that would eventually connect two institutions, thousands of residents, and generations of University of Northern Iowa students. Decades later, UNI students walk through the doors of Western Home Communities for many of the same reasons Jerry once walked into the Lutheran Home in Northwood—to learn, to connect, and often to discover something about themselves along the way.

Through Learn & Earn, CAPS CNA clinical, Waterloo Career Center, internships, and the transformative Timeless Journeys program, students build relationships with older adults while exploring their own sense of purpose. Residents gain fresh perspectives and meaningful connections with young people who may one day shape the future of healthcare, education, and community life.

Jerry understands that exchange better than anyone else . His own connection to UNI began with a football scholarship, but it quickly grew into something deeper. A first-generation college student, the first in his family to earn a four-year degree, he immersed himself in campus life through student government, the Men’s Glee Club, and his work as a Resident Assistant. “I had the best experience at UNI,” he says. “And I took advantage of it.” As an RA, he learned to navigate conflict, support students, and build trust. Through campus involvement, he discovered how community forms, how people grow, and how leadership is less about authority and more about presence.

Those lessons became the foundation for the path he would build next. Jerry knew he wanted to work in long-term care administration, but UNI didn’t yet offer a degree for that field. Instead of settling, he partnered with mentors Nancy Bramhall and Shirley Uehle (both are now Western Home residents) to create an interdisciplinary major that blended business, health, psychology, and social sciences. “I didn’t want to be a general studies graduate,” he says. “I had a plan.” That willingness to build a path where none existed would become a defining trait of his career. And later, a guiding principle of the UNI and Western Home partnership he would later help shape.

That foundation carried him into a practicum at Western Home in 1988–89. What began as a student placement quickly became something more. Western Home Communities President Bill Applegate saw potential in the young administrator and encouraged him to stay. Jerry accepted, transforming a lifetime of comfort around older adults into a career of purpose. Over the next three decades, he grew alongside the organization, helping shape a community built on relationships, service, and belonging. His perspective evolved over time. “When I came here, I was like the residents’ grandson,” he says. “As I got older, I became more like their son. Before I retire, I’ll be their peer.” It’s more than a reflection on aging. It’s a testament to the depth of the relationships that have defined his life’s work.

Today, as President of Western Home Communities, Jerry sees the partnership with UNI as something far greater than internships or clinical placements. Students finding their purpose is what he observes. He sees residents sharing wisdom, stories, and life experiences. Employees find meaningful careers in his view. Again and again, he sees relationships changing lives. Programs like Western Home’s Learn & Earn, Cedar Falls CAPS, and UNI’s Timeless Journeys create space for those connections to happen naturally. For students, the experience often challenges assumptions about aging. For residents, it offers a reminder that the next generation may not be so different after all.

Jerry believes these interactions matter because they move beyond transactions and become relationships—the same kind that shaped him as a child in Northwood, as a student at UNI, and as a leader at Western Home. One Learn & Earn student summed up her experience simply: she went from not knowing what she wanted to do to finding a sense of purpose. For Jerry, stories like that are the clearest reminder of why this partnership matters.

Looking back, the path seems almost obvious. It began with a farm kid who felt at home among older adults. It grew through mentors who opened doors, a university that helped him build his own path, and a community that became his calling. Today, Jerry Harris stands as a bridge—a bridge between generations, between learning and purpose, and between the University of Northern Iowa and Western Home Communities. The relationships that shaped his life continue to shape others, proving that the true strength of this partnership isn’t found in programs or projects, but in people. One person connecting with another.