Emma Harper was born in Stranraer and was raised on a dairy farm near the Lochans, helping her parents, James and Cathleen (Jim n’ Kay), with the milking the kye, upkeep of the calves, and other jobs.

Emma attended Stranraer Academy before the family moved to a farm near Annan where she attended Annan Academy prior to her nurse training in Dumfries at the Royal College of Nursing and Midwifery.

After becoming a qualified nurse she worked for the NHS in both Scotland and England before taking an opportunity to move to California to work as a Theatre Nurse at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles. In the United States, Emma’s work included involvement in transplant and trauma surgery, before going on to lead nursing surgical teams and provide specialist clinical education in the Operating Room and Post Anaesthesia Care Units.

After 14 years in North America, Emma returned home with her American husband, Robertson, and worked at the Dumfries Royal Infirmary as a Recovery Room and Theatre Nurse and then Clinical Educator until May 2016 Holyrood election.

After joining the SNP in 2010, Emma stood for election as the SNP candidate for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale & Tweeddale in the 2015 UK General Election, losing out to David Mundell by just 798 votes after achieving a swing of over 27.5%. However, Emma was elected to the Scottish Parliament one year later as an MSP for South Scotland, with the SNP picking up 120,217 votes across the region (38.3% and higher than any other party).

Emma is a member of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, as well as a number of Cross-Party Groups including Lung Health (Co-convenor), Mental Health (Co-convenor), Diabetes (Co-convenor),  Health Inequalities (Co-convenor), USA (Member) and Recreational Boating & Marine Tourism (Member).

In her spare time, Ms Harper regularly attends Robert Burns events across the south west, is a past President of Dumfries Ladies Burns Club Number 1, and is a keen promoter of the Scots language. Emma and her husband also own a border collie, Maya, who was the winner of the first Holyrood Dog of the Year Award in 2017.