Alumni Making Waves

   Camille Harris - MSMS Class of 1995

"I have been blessed with such amazing experiences" is how Camille Harris of Ridgeland, Mississippi, class of 1995 graduate describes her career after being accepted to the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science.  Camille's career has taken her to Africa and back home again.

Camille's passion for veterinary medicine began during her MSMS career.  Camille knew she had a love of biology but narrowed her scope to veterinary medicine while attending school. She spent time participating in research at Mississippi State University's College of Veterinary Medicine with Dr. Davidson as her mentor.  Camille said "Dr. Davidson was a great mentor to me. I love biology. It meant so much to have a female African-American PhD professor. She was a positive influence on me in school." Dr. Davidson commented on Camille's career at MSMS as "an excellent student, highly motivated who loved science. She was a very special student."

After graduation from MSMS, Camille attended Cornell University.   At Cornell, in the School for Field Studies, she spent a semester abroad in Kenya studying wildlife ecology, management, and disease.  While at Mississippi State University working on her masters in Wildlife Health, Camille had a chance to go back to Africa.  This time she spent four months in the Republic of South Africa as a veterinary intern.  She had the opportunity to care for animals such as: rhinos, giraffes, zebras, and other native species. Camille's main focus centered on an invasive species of feral swine disease.  She worked with the USDA's Wildlife Services to inform the MS Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Park about feral swine disease and management. 

After obtaining her masters, Camille started a full time position with the Wildlife Center of Virginia, a non-profit organization.  Through the organization she worked in the wildlife hospital taking care of a variety of different animals from as small as a box turtle to as large as a black bear.  Camille then went to work for the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park in Washington D.C. and learned more about zoo medicine.  Her patients included birds, reptiles, invertebrates, gorillas, lions, and pandas.  While working for the Wildlife Center and the Smithsonian Camille published several clinical research documents.

Currently Camille is working on her PhD from Virginia Tech.  She has been awarded a two-year $30,000 fellowship from the National Institutes of Health for her doctoral research in the study of forest disturbance and its ecological impacts on LaCross Virus, a mosquito-borne disease which can cause seizures, paralysis, a coma, and in most severe cases brain damage.  During an average year 75 cases of LaCross are reported to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Camille will study habitat disturbance, disease ecology, and the role of invasive species and how these effect the transmission of the virus.

The National Institutes of Health Fellowship to Virginia Tech for her doctorate is not the first award Camille has been honored. To attend Cornell she was awarded a four-year Army ROTC scholarship. Camille has received other prestigious awards from the Morris Animal Foundation, Sigma Xi (The Scientific Research Society), and the AAAS/Science. She is currently a member of Phi Zeta (Honor Society of Veterinary Medicine), Sigma Xi, American Veterinary Medical Association, Wildlife Disease Association, American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians and Gamma Sigma Delta (Honor Society of Agriculture).

When talking to Camille her passion for veterinary medicine is evident.  Camille shares this passion with students by being a mentor and teaching classes. As Camille attends Virginia Tech she teaches introductory biology to wildlife medicine.  She had the opportunity to train veterinary students and international veterinarians in wildlife medicine throughout the course of her career.