College of Veterinary Medicine Prof. Jarra Jagne DVM ’90, Public and Ecosystem Health, has been awarded the Daniel Elmer Salmon Award for Distinguished Alumni Service by the College of Veterinary Medicine. This prestigious distinction is the Veterinary College’s highest alumni honor and bestowed to only a handful of doctor of veterinary medicine graduates who have had notable achievements in their profession and community.
Jagne grew up in The Gambia, a country in West Africa bordering Senegal. From a young age, she was interested in the field of veterinary medicine. Jagne explained that Gambia relies “heavily” on both crop and animal agriculture and that she was surrounded by animals given the country’s “diverse profile” of livestock.
Jagne detailed her upbringing, which she told The Sun gave her unique opportunities to interact and become comfortable with animals. She described experiences with her accountant father, who would bring her to rural areas to buy peanuts, where she would spot livestock “all around” and develop an interest in helping and studying them by becoming a veterinarian — an uncommon career path in The Gambia then.
“There weren’t many Gambian veterinarians at the time,” Jagne said, but she found a role model in her uncle, Dr. Wally Ndow and also Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, who was a veterinarian and also the first President of Gambia after the country gained independence from the United Kingdom in February 1965.
Jagne started her path to become a veterinarian at Colorado State University, where she earned her B.S. in biological sciences. She then made her way to the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell to get her DVM degree.
Jagne later specialized in poultry medicine and pathology at the University of Pennsylvania, a choice that was largely influenced by her time at Cornell.
“Cornell had a premier avian department,” Jagne said. “My connection to that department was the main reason I became a poultry veterinarian.”
Most notably, Jagne participated in a U.S. Agency for International Development funded project, where she directed avian influence prevention programs across Africa and Asia. As part of her work, she communicated with environmental, humanitarian and agricultural organizations to emphasize her One Health philosophy of uniting different disciplines and help prepare every part of society for avian influenza.
Jagne believes that her adaptation to life away from her home can be credited towards her resilience, gained from growing up in The Gambia.
“Growing up in West Africa made me resilient,” Jagne said. “I just had a good sense of self and who I was, being raised in an African culture. Even though I was faced with micro aggressions and discrimination that Black people face from time to time in the US, I always maintained a sense of confidence.”
Jagne has been back in Ithaca as a professor at Cornell since 2011. After experiencing various fields and countries throughout her career, she finally chose academia.
“I enjoy teaching and interacting with students,” Jagne said. “That’s one of the reasons why I came back to academia. That was a big thing, teaching students.”
Jagne’s passion for teaching led her to help the University of The Gambia launch their first veterinary school in 2025. Now, on her future plans, Jagne hopes to continue providing mentorship and support to students and poultry farmers while contributing to the future of veterinary medicine in The Gambia before she retires.
“I hope to continue mentoring students, especially women and youth groups,” Jagne said.
