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“I was famous for always being late. This was completely cured by a life-changing experience which I continue to pay for even now. As Chair of the Committee on Professional Development and Equity for the prestigious “Infectious Diseases Society of America”, I was responsible for organising and chairing the symposium which opened our annual conference in Chicago. Needless to say, I missed the Kingston leg of my flight and, as a result, all my other connections. The solution? I chartered a private jet from Fort Lauderdale (Florida) in order to arrive on time! After working in several prestigious medical institutions in the USA for over 12 years, I wanted to return to UWI to perform collaborative clinical trials and research, such as the rotavirus vaccine trial to reduce deaths from gastroenteritis and the prevention, treatment and care of HIV/AIDS in women and children.”

Professor Celia Christie-Samuels

PROFESSOR AND CHAIR OF PAEDIATRICS (INFECTIONS DISEASE, EPIDEMIOLOGY
AND PUBLIC HEALTH),
DIRECTOR - VACCINES INFECTIOUS DISEASE CENTRE AND THE KINGSTON PAEDIATRIC
AND PATERNAL HIV/AIDS PROGRAMME FOR CLINICAL RESEARCH
DEPARTMENT OF OBSTERICS, GYNAECOLOGY AND PAEDIATRICS
FACULTY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES
MONA CAMPUS, JAMAICA
Tel: (876) 977-6637 • Email: Celia.ChristieSamuels@uwimona.edu.jm

PROFILE

After graduating from UWI with an MBBS and DM in Paediatrics, Professor Christie-Samuels went on to have a distinguished career in the United States. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship in Paediatrics Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology (Hospital and Molecular) at Yale University School of Medicine and earned Master’s in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. Professor Christie-Samuels was also appointed a Fellow of the American Academy of Peadiatrics and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Her career has combined teaching, research and clinical expertise, serving as Associate/Assistant Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine (1990-1999) as well as Infectious Diseases Consultant Paediatrician and Hospital Epidemiologist at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Research Foundation. Since 1997 she has been a Special Government Employee and Consultant to the USA Food and Drugs Administration. Then in 1999 she returned to The UWI as Professor of Paediatrics and Infectious Diseases.
Professor Christie-Samuels has received numerous awards for her groundbreaking research, including Lancet’s Paper of the Year Award (2006) for best original medical research worldwide, as co-author, International Rotavirus Vaccine Trial, in the New England Journal of Medicine; the Excellence in Science - Stephen Preblud Award (2002) from the National Immunization Programme, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA; Principal’s Research Award, Project with Greatest Business/Economic/Developmental Impact, Faculty of Medical Sciences, UWI, (2007); Principal’s Research Award, Most Outstanding Research Project, Faculty of Medical Sciences, UWI (2006) for “The Kingston Paediatric and Perinatal HIV/AIDS Project”; International Leadership Award for research, Elizabeth Glaser Paediatric AIDS Foundation; and the United States Food and Drugs Administration’s Advisory Committee Service Award for work on the Anti-Infective Drugs Advisory Committee, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Clinical trials of drugs and vaccines aimed at preventing and treating infectious diseases; clinical and outcomes based research in HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.