Harris has a degree in philosophy.
Yes, but he's still technically an author/journalist rather than an academic, since he doesn't actually work in academia the way Dawkins (a scientist) and Dennett (a scientific philosopher) do.
Somewhat on the topic of religion, one of the things I got for Christmas was Christopher Reeve's book "Nothing Is Impossible." For those who don't know, Reeve struggled most of his life to figure out what he really believed in, until about two or three years before his death when he joined the Unitarian-Universalist church. I may not agree with him on his particular religion, but his experience (along with his other experiences during his paralysis) is actually pretty inspiring.