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Margaret (Peggy) C. Barr, DVM, PhD, joined the CVM faculty in December 2003 as an Associate Professor of Veterinary Virology and Immunology. She is a PBL facilitator, a content expert in microbiology and immunology, Co-director of the Molecular and Cellular Biology course, Chairperson of the Admissions Committee, and a member of the Curriculum and Student Affairs Committees.
Dr. Barr received her DVM degree from Auburn University in 1984. After spending two years in a mixed animal practice in St. Augustine, Florida, she entered a graduate program at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine. Shortly after her arrival at Cornell University, Dr. Barr became fascinated with a newly-discovered feline virus - feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV). She received the Cornell Chapter's Phi Zeta Graduate Student Manuscript Award for her first publication describing the presence of FIV infection in nondomestic felids. Her 1992 PhD thesis, "Feline Immunodeficiency Virus Infection in Domestic and Nondomestic Cats," was just the beginning of a career-long focus on this virus. After receiving her PhD, Dr. Barr continued FIV research, first at Cornell University, then at The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego. In 2000, she joined a nascent nonprofit research group, Vaccine Research Institute of San Diego. Some of her work there became the foundation for a successful grant proposal to the Alzheimer's Association for research on a vaccine against Alzheimer's Disease, awarded in January 2004.
While at Cornell, Dr. Barr helped to design a course on "AIDS and Society" and lectured on the history of the AIDS epidemic and the immunology of HIV infection to undergraduates. She also taught veterinary courses in microbiology, virology, immunology and infectious diseases. Dr. Barr has been an active mentor to several undergraduate and veterinary students, and was honored with an Outstanding Educator Award in the Merrill Presidential Scholar program at Cornell. She has lectured in continuing education programs for veterinary practitioners, written chapters on feline viral diseases in veterinary textbooks, and served as an infectious disease consultant to the US Cheetah Species Survival Plan. Dr. Barr has worked to enhance the interest of girls in science as a workshop leader in the Expanding Your Horizons program for 6th to10th grade girls, and as a member of the Outreach committee of the San Diego Association for Women in Science.
In her "other" life, Dr. Barr has been a Girl Scout leader, PTA member, and soccer/baseball mom to her 15-year old daughter, Georgia, and her 11-year old son, Jackson. Her husband, Chris Stuart, is a full time bluegrass musician and songwriter. For relaxation, she enjoys walking the family dogs (all rescues: Lucky and Ellie, Labrador retriever mixes, and Gini, an Australian Shepherd), tending her rose garden, and reading mysteries.
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Biography
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