Harlan Sands serves as Associate Provost for Administration and Finance at The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), where he is responsible for financial management of a $200+ million operational budget, academic program policy development and oversight, long-range strategic planning and capital investments, academic space allocation and planning, and the university compliance program. Since September 2009, he has also assisted the Provost in managing and directing UAB Student Affairs.

Before arriving at UAB in 2007, Harlan served as an Associate Vice President for Research at Florida International University (FIU) and Executive Director of FIU's Applied Research Center, the largest externally-funded research enterprise at the institution. He also held various other administrative and academic posts at FIU, including Associate Dean of the College of Health and Urban Affairs, where he helped establish the College's initial operating structure and budgeting plan, and instructor in the Department of Criminal Justice, where taught 10 different courses on Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, and the Criminal Justice System.

Other professional assignments include four years as an Assistant Public Defender in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in Miami, Florida, where he litigated over 50 jury trials through verdict, and over 10 years on active duty in the U.S. Navy, where he attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander as a Surface Warfare Officer and Naval Intelligence Officer.

Harlan is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and holds an M.B.A. from George Washington University and a Juris Doctorate from George Mason University. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of both Big Brothers Big Sisters and United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Birmingham. He and his wife, Lynn, live in Mountain Brook, AL with their two sons, Samson (8) and AJ (6).