Bruce Harlan is married. He also has a mother, a daughter, a grandmother and an aunt.

For the new executive director of Meadville’s Women’s Services Inc., what happens to women is important. That’s especially true when it comes to domestic violence. “Quite frankly,” he said during a recent interview in the office he has occupied since Dec. 8, 2008, “I think more men need to get involved if we’re going to change the culture.”

Harlan, whose formal introduction to the greater Meadville community will come during a series of events scheduled to begin later this month, has been selected to succeed Gillian Ford, who stepped aside after serving the organization in various capacities since 1993.

“I was pleased to find an excellent organization that’s been well cared for,” Harlan said. “It’s in great shape financially and otherwise. I’m also pleased to know that the community supports this program as well as it does. Women’s Services enjoys a good reputation.”

The organization is locally well known by the term “The Greenhouse,” referring specifically to the shelter that cares for victims of domestic violence, predominantly women and children. However, Harlan was quick to explain, “we’re in the schools and out in the community. We accompany victims who present at the hospital who have been sexually assaulted. We’re always busy.”

A Harrisburg native, Harlan, 50, graduated from Messiah College in 1981 with a degree in behavioral science. From there, he spent 20 years working with at-risk youth in a variety of settings in Pennsylvania and Milwaukee, Wisc.

“Then I turned 40 and thought maybe it’s time I did something else,” he said with a grin. “The kids were beginning to see me as a dinosaur and it was getting harder for me to run them down.”

At the same time he was seeking a career change, the domestic violence program in Lewistown was looking for a director. He applied, was hired — immediately becoming the only male running a domestic violence program in Pennsylvania — and spent the next eight years there.

“I liked this field,” he said. “It was a good fit for me because over the 20 years, I probably worked with 1,000 kids. Probably 99 percent of those kids came out of violent homes, had been sexually molested, physically abused or had witnessed domestic violence. This was a way for me to work the same problems but from a different perspective.”

When he heard Ford was leaving, Harlan applied. “My wife, Lynn, grew up in Gettysburg,” he explained. “Her parents worked at Gettysburg College. She was used to growing up in a college town, so Meadville provided an opportunity to combine that with the same small-town, rural qualities that I liked.”



Choosing a career

In a way, Harlan’s chosen profession came as something of a natural progression.

“I came of age just as the women’s movement was taking off,” he explained with a smile. “I remember to the day when my mother read Betty Friedan (author of “The Feminine Mystique”) and declared herself somewhat independent of the kind of housewife drudgery she had been brought up to know.” He also had an older sister who was coming of age at about the same time.

“There was recently an article about (President Barack) Obama’s generation and the baby boomers,” Harlan explained. “It was described as ‘the group that came of age between when Dylan went electric and Nirvana went unplugged.’ I love that. That group of folks are described as ‘pragmatic idealists.’ That sums me up pretty well.”

As for the future, “My plans are first, do no harm and maintain the standing it has within the community.” Beyond that, he’ll be looking at the broad issues including innovation, interconnectedness and how to continue to be good stewards of the local resources.

As for how he’s adjusting to life in Meadville, “At first I objected to the lack of sunshine,” he recalled. “But being the optimist I am, I soon found myself thinking, ‘Well, maybe sunshine’s over-rated.’ ”



Mary Spicer can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at mspicer@meadvilletribune.com.