Dwight Harshbarger is perhaps best known for his work in psychology, including a seven-year tenure as the Executive Director of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, but it is his first fiction work, In the Heart in the Hills: A Novel in Stories, that has earned him a spot in West Virginia's literary pantheon as well.

Harshbarger is a native of Milton, West Virginia, a small town in Cabell County. He attended West Virginia University, earning both an AB and an MA. He continued his education at both University of California-Berkley and the University of North Dakota, completing a Ph.D. there. Harshbarger then spent time at Harvard University in post-graduate study before returning to West Virginia to join the faculty of West Virginia University, eventually earning a position as a tenured professor of psychology.

In addition to his time in higher education, Harshbarger has also spent time in the corporate sector, specializing in strengthening quality and safety performance in organizations. His interests led to leadership roles in corporate human resources, as a senior vice president for Reebok International and vice president of Sealy, Inc. In addition, he served as a consultant for RHR International's Chicago office and then continued his corporate career as director of strategic consulting and vice president of Aubrey Daniels International. Since that time, he has also established his own consulting firm, The Browns Group, Inc., and has worked with numerous international corporations to implement successful behavior-based performance improvement programs in the United States and Asia.

Harshbarger served as the Executive Director of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies. Despite stepping down from that position, he remains a Senior Fellow of the Center. He has written extensively on organizational performance and edited the works of others in the field as well. His work in behavioral sciences has earned him the respect and acknowledgement of his peers; he is an elected Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society. In 2006, he was honored by the Psychology department of the University of North Dakota with their Outstanding Alumni Award.

Harshbarger published his first fiction work in 2005. In the Heart of the Hills: A Novel in Stories is a series of inter-connected short stories that capture life in post-World War II America, focusing on two boys in a small West Virginia town who struggle toward adulthood in a world recently remade by cataclysmic events around the globe.

After his retirement from the Cambridge Center in 2008, Harshbarger returned to West Virginia, settling in Morgantown to focus on his fiction writing career. He is currently at work on his second work, a historical fiction novel focused on the Hawk's Nest industrial disaster.

Excerpt from the Annie Merner Pfeiffer Library Guide to Resources for the Study of West Virginia Authors and Literary Traditions.