Camille Massey was honored Friday with a star at Gainesville High School.

The 1983 graduate was selected as an exceptional alumna by Pam Ware, the head of the high school’s drama department.

Gainesville Public Information Officer Catiel Felts said each year, the seniors in the drama program pick the two top thespian alumni from the previous graduating class, and Ware picks an outstanding alumni from a prior year to receive stars engraved with their names on the floor of the high school theater.

“There in the walkway area there are these stars engraved with different people’s names,” Felts said. “That’s what we call the avenue of stars.”

Along with Massey, 2009 graduates Angie Highsmith and Robert Whelchel also received stars.

Highsmith is finishing her first year at the University of Georgia. Whelchel is touring in Germany with Young Americans, Felts said.
Massey is the daughter of Kayanne and Abit Massey, president emeritus of the Georgia Poultry Federation. She had some rather interesting accomplishments during her time in Gainesville.

“She was the first female student council president at Gainesville High School,” Felts said. “She was involved in pretty much everything there.”

Massey also served as the president of her high school thespian troupe.

“She received numerous awards in drama and was in the Georgia Governor’s Honors Program,” Felts said.

Massey went on to graduate from Syracuse University with a degree in telecommunications before getting her law degree at Columbia University.

She has been successful in her adult life and currently lives in New York. She works as an international human rights lawyer and is vice president of the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan, independent think tank.

“She started a consulting business in 2000 that provides strategic policy, legal and communications services to global organizations,” Felts said. “Since 2001 she has served as a senior advisor for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, which works in 23 countries with a concentration in Africa and Asia.”

Felts said Massey’s next goal is to learn to speak Mandarin with her 8-year old daughter, Lucia, who was adopted from China.