harrison was born in memphis, tennessee. he attended vanderbilt university and graduated magna cum laude from the university of memphis with a bachelor of arts degree in 1995 and then went on to earn master's degrees from the university of florida, the naval war college, and the national intelligence university. he attended but did not complete the master of business administration program at the wharton school of the university of pennsylvania and is a ph.d. candidate at the new york university.