Marsha Harris was the female winner of the 1998 Walter Byers Award, the National Collegiate Athletic Association's highest academic honor, in recognition of being the nation's top female scholar-athlete.[1] [2] She was a two-time Kodak Division III All-American who scored the winning basket for the New York University Violets women's basketball team in the 1997 NCAA Division III National Championship game resulting in a 72 - 70 victory over University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. As of 2005 she was the University Athletic Association's all-time leading scorer and she was in her third year as a surgical resident at the New York University School of Medicine.[3]