Highfill-Symmes was Meredith’s first student winner of a Fulbright Scholarship and continued her studies at the Konrad Lorenz Institut in Vienna, Austria. Returning home, Highfill-Symmes moved to Mississippi and crafted the first research on the personalities of individual dolphins. Her pioneering study almost ended when the laboratory she was using was damaged and her dolphins swept out to sea by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Fortunately for her, weeks later, the dolphins allowed themselves to be re-acquired. After some clever changes in plans, she was able to continue her work.

Highfill-Symmes presented her dolphin research and discussed her life as scientist before a larger-than-capacity crowd at Meredith College on Wednesday, Oct. 27 during a ceremony in which she was presented with the Distinguished Alumna Award.

Highfill-Symmes was named the 2002 Department of Psychology’s Outstanding Senior when she graduated from Meredith. She was awarded the Ph.D. in Psychology by the University of Southern Mississippi in 2008. Since that time she has been teaching and doing research as assistant professor of psychology at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.

For more information on psychology at Meredith, visit www.meredith.edu/psych.

Date Submitted: 2010-11-03