Editor’s Note: UNMC is broadening the appeal of biomedical research to minorities. In conjunction, UNMC Today will introduce you to some of the undergraduates, postgraduates and investigators already working on campus. Today you’ll meet Chantey Morris, Ph.D., a post-doctoral fellow at Eppley Institute.
Chantey Morris, Ph.D., is a post-doctoral fellow at UNMC’s Eppley Institute. Born in North Omaha in 1962, Dr. Morris excelled in science and math at an early age and grew up knowing that a science career would be her calling.
“I have always loved science,” Dr. Morris said. “Science and math were always my best subjects – they were easy for me. I also began reading books at a young age, and if they contained math or science, I was happy.”
But it was her junior high school teacher that really nurtured that interest. “At the time that I attended Horace Mann, it was considered a ‘ghetto school’,” Dr. Morris said. “Ms. Mobley gave me a push when I wanted to act like some of the bad teenagers. She was very supportive when my growing mind needed a positive role model.”
After attending Horace Mann, Morris began her high school career at Northwest High School.
“It was a big transition for me to go from a predominately African American school to a predominately white school, but I knew that I didn’t want to be part of the status quo – I wanted to do something different with my life,” Dr. Morris said.
She soon found her niche and participated in a number of advanced placement courses. She also was active in the Latin club and played on the basketball team.
Financial issues prevented Dr. Morris from going straight to college after high school, so she joined the U. S. Air Force where she worked in bioenvironmental engineering doing research on water and air samples. While in the Air Force, Dr. Morris achieved the rank of staff sergeant and traveled the world, including duty stations in the Azores Islands and Germany.
After serving six years in the military, she returned to Omaha and began classes at the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 1987, graduating in 1990 with a bachelor of science degree in biology. While studying at UNO, she also was a member of the Golden Key Honor Society.
In 1991, Dr .Morris was hired at UNMC as a research technician and began working under the supervision and mentoring of Sidney Mirvish, Ph.D, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the Eppley Institute. She left Omaha for a short while to do research in Colorado, but Dr. Mirvish convinced her to return to Omaha in 1995 and pursue her doctorate degree in a program that allowed her to bypass acquiring a master’s degree. In 1996, at UNMC, she was a recipient of the Environmental Toxicology Fellowship. She received her doctorate in pharmaceutical science from UNMC in 2000.
Today, Dr. Morris continues to work at UNMC as a post-doctoral fellow in research in the field of immunology. She recently received a grant to study how the immune system can recognize and destroy tumors. Her research includes investigating the presentation of viral and/or cancerous cells to the immune system.
With her qualifications, Dr. Morris could have worked almost anywhere – there is a high demand for African American biomedical researchers across the nation as more and more research focuses on a number of chronic diseases especially prevalent in the black community. But she has chosen to stay at the Eppley Institute because of the strong collaboration among researchers.
Dr. Morris hopes her life experiences will encourage minority children to become more involved in math and science.
“I want kids to know that anything is possible – I want to show them that there is a way out of a lot of life circumstances that they didn’t create,” Dr. Morris said.
Although her mother now lives in Sioux Falls, S.D., and her father in Welch, Okla., Dr. Morris anticipates a long biomedical career in Omaha. In her free time she enjoys watching movies, playing cards with friends and reading.