Breaking Barriers

Becoming a world champion cyclist at 80 years old is just the latest in a long line of accomplishments for Camilla Buchanan ’66, P ’11. She started her own OB-GYN practice, tandem biked across the country, created a nonprofit helping women in Kenya and taught public health to William & Mary students. She and her wife, Debra Hill P ’11, are active members of the W&M community.

Growing up in Roanoke, Virginia, Buchanan wanted to study chemistry in college. At the time, William & Mary was the only state university in Virginia to admit women, so Buchanan applied. Her brother, William “Buck” Buchanan ’68, M.Ed. ’70, soon joined her there.

She was the only woman in some of her science and math classes, but she loved being able to study a wide range of subjects. She played field hockey, lacrosse and basketball, joined Kappa Alpha Theta and served on the women’s honor council, as president of the dorm council and as a president’s aide.

She made lifelong friends and met the man who became her husband, Stuart “Stu” Spirn ’67, J.D. ’70. After graduation, she soon became pregnant, and she found she couldn’t get a job in the chemistry field. She taught high school instead but still faced discrimination because of pregnancy.

“The deck was so stacked against women in the ’60s, even with a degree from William & Mary,” she says.

She moved to Okinawa, Japan, with Spirn, who was serving as a Judge Advocate General’s Corps officer. There, she met many American women who were serving as doctors and in medical clinics. They seemed to love their jobs, and they inspired Buchanan to apply for medical school when she returned to the U.S.

Her favorite William & Mary professors, Trevor Hill (organic chemistry) and Leroy Smith (English), wrote her recommendation letters. The Medical College of Virginia, now Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, accepted her — she was the first woman with children to be admitted.

Dr. Buchanan

With two kids in tow, she completed her medical degree and residency by 1980. “Medical school was a snap compared to the academics at William & Mary,” she says.

She then embarked on her next challenge — getting hired as an OB-GYN in an era when most such physicians were men. Her solution? Founding her own practice, Womancare of Williamsburg, from which she retired in 2012. There, she cared for women of all ages, seeing both the start of life when babies were born — “everyone spontaneously breaks out into huge smiles” — and the end of life when she treated older patients and those battling cancer.

She found that skills she learned as a William & Mary athlete came into play in her medical career.

“Surgery is a lot like athletic competition — you have to prepare mentally and physically. You need to be calm in the face of adversity and stay steady,” she says.

As if running her own practice wasn’t difficult enough, she was also beginning a new relationship. Buchanan and Spirn divorced (they are now friends and serve on the Olde Guarde Council together). Buchanan began dating Hill, who served as W&M’s head volleyball coach until her retirement in 2007.

While coming out didn’t seem to affect her practice, Buchanan was terrified that Hill would be fired from her job at William & Mary. Millie West HON ’91, L.H.D. ’17, a legend in the W&M Athletics department since 1959 and associate director at the time, defended Hill as an outstanding coach and mentor to students.

“We stood up and were forthright about what we were doing,” says Buchanan. “At that particular time in this particular community, we were supported.”

On the Road

An avid runner, Buchanan signed up for William & Mary’s Karen Dudley Triathlon in 1988, which had a cycling component. Though she was called away at the last minute to deliver a baby, she kept training and entered some local races.

“There is hardly anything in life that is more exciting in the moment than winning a bicycle race in a sprint,” she says. “It’s exhilarating. It’s dangerous — there are other riders crashing down all around you. But then you cross the finish line and you want to do it all again.”

She and Hill enjoy cycling together, and once Buchanan retired in 2012, they fulfilled a lifelong dream — cycling the TransAmerica Trail from Yorktown, Virginia, to Astoria, Oregon, on a tandem bicycle. It was 81 days and 4,180 miles. They’ve since embarked on many other multistate cycling adventures.

Buchanan and Hill also followed another passion. Together, they founded a nonprofit organization which helped Maasai women market their jewelry in order to pay school fees for their children. On her many trips to Kenya, Buchanan engaged in public health efforts such as teaching about the importance of sanitation.

Around 2007, Buchanan began teaching a class in W&M’s Kinesiology & Health Sciences program on the intersections of sex, gender and health care. She was instrumental in creating the public health minor in 2012, helped W&M obtain a grant to provide pregnancy testing and support for incarcerated women, and brought students to Kenya in 2016 and 2018.

Buchanan and Hill are still very closely connected to William & Mary. They frequently attend games to cheer on the Tribe. Buchanan is a charter member of the Society of 1918, W&M’s giving society that supports women’s initiatives, and she served on the committee to commemorate 100 years of women students at W&M.

Buchanan and Hill have a daughter together, Camilla Lee Hill ’11, who also played field hockey at W&M. When Buchanan had a chance to race in the 2024 UCI Gran Fondo World championships in Denmark in September, her family was there to cheer her on to her victory.

“It’s unbelievably exciting to win a world championship, especially when your whole family is there,” she says. “You could never repeat a moment so perfect.”