2024 Distinguished Alumni Awards

Christian Brothers University is pleased to announce it will honor two graduates during CBU’s Alumni Weekend on September 20-21, 2024. These awards — the Distinguished Alumnus/a Award and the Distinguished Young Alumnus/a Award — recognize graduates who have achieved a notable level of success in life, made significant contributions to his or her profession, supported the efforts of CBU, and contributed to society through public service and/or church activities.

Distinguished Alumna Award

Carolyn Henry, a graduate of the CBU Class of 1992, will be honored as the recipient of the Distinguished Alumna Award and recognized for her journeys through the worlds of finance, film, and philanthropy that exemplify her professional and personal dedication, creativity, and resilience. Born into a life filled with early adversities in Clarksdale, MS, Carolyn found herself faced with the devastating loss of several close family members within a short time span, but her determination remained unshaken. She moved to Memphis in 1985, and a pivotal mock interview at the Memphis Urban League with Dr. Inetta Rogers led to a position at First Tennessee Bank, where Rogers was a human resources officer at the time. This position began Carolyn’s long and successful career in the financial industry. While working full-time, she pursued her academic ambitions by taking evening classes at CBU and obtained her bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1992. She continued her education following her CBU graduation and received an MBA from the University of Phoenix in 2006.

With over 30 years in finance roles, Carolyn’s experience spans major corporations and institutions that include the Internal Revenue Service, Nations Bank/Boatman’s National, Trammell Crow Company, ServiceMaster, and FedEx Services. Since January 2021, she has been the chief financial officer and shareholder of BLP Film Studios, LLC. Her involvement with BLP began in 2018 when she created a multi-acre film studio campus in Memphis, a venture to boost the local economy through the arts. Carlolyn’s creative ventures include writing and producing The City of Crosses, a 13-episode drama which is currently available on Amazon, Tubi, Peacock, and other digital streaming platforms. She holds executive producer credits for films like Hidden Orchard Mysteries and shorts such as Tall Tales and The Picture. Carolyn has continued to expand her creative repertoire with projects that include a recently released feature film titled Lethal Love Affair and several documentaries and two feature films currently scheduled to be released in 2025.

Beyond her professional and creative accomplishments, Carolyn Henry is deeply committed to giving back to her community. She serves on the Business Advisory Board at CBU, is a trustee of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra’s Circle of Friends, and she engages with numerous other local nonprofits. Her volunteer efforts span from Habitat for Humanity at ServiceMaster to various initiatives under FedEx Cares.

Distinguished Young Alumna Award

Dr. Cameron Volpe Fili, a graduate of the CBU Class of 2013, will be honored as the recipient of the Distinguished Young Alumna Award and recognized for her work in veterinary and laboratory animal medicine as well as her volunteer work in a combination of fields that include animal welfare, community theatre, and church choirs.

As a student at CBU, Cameron was the recipient of the Plough Scholarship, which provided full tuition for all four years of her education. After graduating from CBU with an honors degree in Biology with a minor in Chemistry, she attended Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine, where she graduated as a salutatorian with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 2017. She has since completed a residency in Laboratory Animal Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and has been board-certified by the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine. She has been employed as a veterinary medical officer at the FDA National Center for Toxicological Research outside of Little Rock, AR since 2020, where she serves as a clinical laboratory animal veterinarian overseeing large animal research projects, and trains government principal investigators and their staff in animal handling, injections, blood collection, and euthanasia.

Cameron is not the only CBU graduate in her family. The tradition began with her maternal grandfather, John McCabe (Class of 1960); and continued with her parents, Lauren McCabe Volpe and Paul Volpe (Class of 1984); her uncle, Rick McCabe (Class of 1984); and her brother, Jason Volpe (Class of 2010). In fact, her parents preceded her in receiving the Distinguished Young Alumnus/a Award by being honored with it back in 1993. She also met her husband, Jonathan Fili, at CBU — he graduated in 2013 with a degree in Engineering Physics, and they married in 2015.

Cameron’s history of volunteer work in animal welfare service started as a CBU student when she interned at Walnut Grove Animal Clinic and UTHSC’s veterinary labs and continued at the Homeless Animal Relief Project in Senatobia, MS, the Biomedical Research Awareness Day at UTHSC, and the Laboratory Animal Welfare Training Exchange Conference.    

Cameron has also been active as a singer in several choirs, including CBU’s Stritch Chapel choir as an undergraduate student and the choir at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Starkville, MS as a veterinary student. When she and Jonathan moved back to Memphis for her UTHSC residency, they led the mass music at Stritch Chapel on Sunday nights with Jonathan playing guitar and both singing and leading a choir of undergraduate students. Since moving to Little Rock, her volunteerism has been mostly in community theatre, one of her favorite extracurricular activities prior to vet school. Cameron and Jonathan have both been part of several theatre productions, including her role as stage manager for Sweeney Todd, Much Ado About Nothing, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 26 Pebbles, and Chicago. She also acted in the role of Mrs. Bucket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at Little Rock’s Studio Theatre.