• News Releases
• Notices & Announcements
• Campus Events
• Reports & Speeches
• Periodicals & Publications

18 to receive honorary doctorates from UWI

UWI Regional Headquarters, Jamaica – The 2013 graduation ceremonies at The University of the West Indies (UWI) will see the conferral of 19 honorary degrees: six each at both the Mona and St Augustine campuses, five at the Cave Hill Campus, and two at the Open Campus. The following awardees will receive honorary doctorates in recognition of their stellar contributions to Caribbean development: 

UWI MONA, JAMAICA

Professor Emeritus Barry Higman – Historian/Educator, Australia - LLD

Dr Janet Rollé – Communications Executive, NY, USA - LLD

Mr Noel Dexter – Educator/Musical Director, Jamaica - LLD

Hon R. Danny Williams – Entrepreneur/Philanthropist - LLD

Mrs Valerie Facey – Architect/Interior Designer/Philanthropist/Entrepreneur - DLitt  

Mr Clive Abdulah, Former Bishop, Trinidad & Tobago - LLD

Dr Elisha Tikasingh – Scientist, Trinidad & Tobago - DSc

Mr Ian Randle – Publisher/Entrepreneur, Jamaica - LLD

Dr Lakshmi Persaud – Novelist/Writer/Literary Commentator, London - DLitt

Ms Marina Salandy-Brown – Journalist, Trinidad & Tobago - DLitt

Dr Theodosius Ming Whi Poon-King – Researcher/Scientist, Trinidad & Tobago - DSc  

UWI CAVE HILL, BARBADOS

Sir Henry de B. Forde – Lawyer/Statesman, Barbados - LLD

Hon Dr Julian Hunte – Businessman/Diplomat, St. Lucia - LLD

Sir Keith Hunte – Educator/Public Servant, Barbados - LLD

Dr Marion Williams – Economist/Public Servant, Barbados - LLD

Rt Rev Rufus Brome – Theologian/Public Servant, Barbados - LLD 

UWI OPEN CAMPUS 

Ms Joan Armatrading – Artist, London - DLitt

Mr Robert Mathavious – Economist/Financial Director, BVI - LLD

UWI Chancellor, Sir George Alleyne will confer the degrees at UWI graduation exercises during the months of October and November. True to custom, one of the honorary graduands will address the audience at each of the ceremonies.  The Open Campus will be the first of the four campuses to host its graduation ceremony on October 12 in Grenada. The graduation ceremony at Cave Hill, Barbados will follow on October 19^th with St Augustine and Mona ceremonies hosted on October 24 through 26 and October 31 through November 02 respectively.  

Campus Marketing & Communications Offices will provide, in due course, more information on the speakers, dates, times and other campus specific, graduation related activities.

About the Honorary Graduands

MONA CAMPUS 

Professor Emeritus Barry Higman - LLD

Professor Emeritus Barry Higman is an Educator and a Historian who has contributed tremendously to the pool of scholarly work on Jamaican and Caribbean history. To date, he has published 12 books, ten of which focus on Jamaican or Caribbean history. Professor Higman has also published over 70 scholarly articles in some of the most renowned historical and social-scientific journals and has edited or co-edited six books including the massive Volume 6 of the UNESCO General History of the Caribbean series, entitled ‘Methodology and Historiography of the Caribbean. 

An alumnus of the University of Sydney, The University of the West Indies and the University of Liverpool, Professor Higman is well recognised for his work. Among his many awards and honours are the UWI Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research, the Musgrave Medal (Gold) for Distinguished Eminence in History, Institute of Jamaica and most recently the ForeWord Book of the Year, Gold Award for Proslavery Priest in 2012.  Professor Higman has been an outstanding academic at all three of his alma mater institutions and coordinated the Heritage Studies Programme at UWI Mona. He has also completed prestigious fellowships including a Research Fellowship at Princeton University and served as a visiting Professor/Scholar at Johns Hopkins University, USA and Flinders University of South Australia.

Communications Executive Dr Janet Rollé is well known in the US media industry. She has held executive posts at numerous high profile media networks including BET, AOL, MTV and HBO and is currently the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for CNN worldwide where she has oversight for positioning and promoting CNN, CNN.com, CNN International, HLN, CNN.com/Live and CNN Mobile. 

Dr Rollé is a graduate of the State University of New York and Columbia University where she gained her MBA. A product of Caribbean parentage, Dr Rollé has a special passion for the Caribbean and contributes to the development of the region through her service on the Board of Directors of the American Foundation for The UWI (AFUWI), a philanthropic agency which supports The University of the West Indies. At AFUWI, Dr Rollé chairs the committee responsible for AFUWI’s annual fund raising Gala. In 2010, the Advertising Age magazine named Dr Janet Rollé one of the ‘10 Who Made Their Mark’ for her noteworthy brand development work at BET. The magazine also named her one of its ‘Women to Watch in 2011’.

Prolific Educator and Musical Director, Noel George Dexter, OD, BSc, LTCL, Diploma in Ethnomusicology and Folklore Studies, has served The University of the West Indies and the region for over 35 years. During these years and beyond Mr Dexter continued to hone his considerable musical skills through studies at the Jamaica School of Music; Westminster Choir College, New Jersey and Shenandoah University, Virginia. He is the holder of a BSc – Sociology from the UWI and a Licentiate of Trinity College London (LCTL) delivered through the Jamaican School of Music.  

Mr Dexter’s eminence in the arts has come from a lengthy career which saw him heavily involved in Choir Directorship, Musical Directorship (Theatre), lyrics composing and recordings. His expertise has prompted him to publish numerous papers and articles as well as to compose many hymns and songs including The UWI’s University song ‘There is a Light’. For his excellence in the field of Music, Noel George Dexter is the holder of Jamaica’s Order of Distinction and a Prime Minister’s Medal.

The Honourable R. Danvers (Danny) Williams OJ, CD, JP, CLU is one of Jamaica’s most dynamic and accomplished entrepreneurs and philanthropists. During his 60 years in the insurance industry, Mr Williams founded Life of Jamaica Limited (now Sagicor Life Jamaica Limited) one of the largest insurance companies in the region. A true philanthropist, Mr Williams is acclaimed for his considerable public service to Jamaica. He was, for 10 years, the President of the Jamaica Association for the Deaf and is still active in the work of the organisation. He also served as Chairman of the Jamaica Association for the Advancement of Literacy (JAMAAL). 

Between 1977 and 1980 Mr Williams served as a Senator, Minister of State and Minister of Industry and Commerce.  Among the numerous awards he has received, Mr Williams was conferred Commander of the Order of Distinction (1972) and the Order of Jamaica (1993) for his public service to Jamaica.  Mr Williams currently serves on the boards of several major Jamaican companies including Sagicor Life Jamaica Limited.

Founder of the Mill Press of Jamaica, Mrs Valarie Facey is by profession an architectural and interior designer who has, since 1954, been active in numerous charitable endeavours beneficial to her adoptive country Jamaica.  Though legally British, American and Jamaican, Mrs Facey has dedicated her life’s work to the preservation of historic landmarks and other aspects of Jamaican cultural heritage, often on a pro bono basis.  

She has been involved in the restoration of historic edifices such as Devon House, Kingston; The St Andrew’s Parish Church; Bellevue Great House and San Souci Hotel. Through her publishing house, the Mill Press, Mrs Facey has worked hard to promote to international audiences books on Jamaica’s heritage in art, history and biography.  

In the tradition of her father-in-law, renowned business man and philanthropist the late Cecil Boswell Facey, Mrs Valerie Facey has also been heavily involved in numerous charitable organisations and to date continues to support their work. These organisations include the Jamaica Association for the Deaf, the Red Cross Society of Jamaica, the Kingston Charity Organisation Society and the Cecil Boswell Facey Foundation. In 1992 Valerie Facey was awarded the German UNESCO Commission Award – Best Designed Book for ‘Jamaica’s Heritage – An untapped resource.’ She also received a Silver Musgrave Medal from the Institute of Jamaica for Heritage Preservation and Publishing.

ST AUGUSTINE CAMPUS  

Rt Rev Clive Abdulah - LLD

The Rt Rev Clive Abdulah BA, STM, FCP, DMIN, DD, has the distinction of bearing many ‘firsts’. He was the first national to be elected Bishop of Trinidad and Tobago −  a position in which he served for twenty-three years (1970-1993). He is a founding member of the Inter-Religious Organisation of Trinidad and Tobago and served as its second President. To date, he is still the first and only Bishop to have served as a member of the University Council of The UWI from 1971-1975, and is the first West Indian Bishop to serve on the Board of Directors of the Anglican Centre in Rome (1992-1995).  

Bishop Abdulah has gained international recognition for his meritorious contributions to theology. He played an instrumental role in having the Anglican Consultative Council meet for the first time in the Caribbean in 1976; and in 1987 initiated the visit by Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa to Trinidad and Tobago.  

For his sterling contributions, in 2010, he was the recipient of the Hummingbird Gold Medal in the National Honours List of Trinidad and Tobago, and in 2013 received the Cadet Corps Commanding Officer’s Award. Bishop Abdulah continues to serve in the Diocese of Trinidad and Tobago.

During his 25-year career, he established the Parasitology Unit at CAREC which subsequently served as a reference centre to laboratories in 19 countries of the Commonwealth Caribbean and authored over 100 research articles which have been featured in international peer-reviewed journals.  Dr Tikasingh is internationally known for the development of a technique to produce hyper-immune ascetic fluids in mice, which is used today as the gold standard and forms the basis for arbovirus immunological studies.  

In recognition of his stellar service to science, Dr Tikasingh has received a number of awards including the Distinguished Service Award in Recognition of Outstanding Contributions to Public Health from the Caribbean Public Health Association (1994) and the award for Outstanding Scientific Achievements in Entomology, Parasitology and Virology from the Caribbean Health Research Council (2005).

Mr Randle is the holder of a BA with special honours from UWI Mona, an MSc in International Studies, University of Southampton, UK and a Diploma in Publishing from the University of Denver. Among his professional appointments, Mr Randle is a founding member and Vice President of the Caribbean Publishers Network (CAPNET); a Board member of the Edna Manley Foundation in Jamaica and also served as a member of the CARICOM Task Force on Culture from 2009 to 2011. He has been honoured with a number of awards for services to publishing, among them the Silver Musgrave Medal from the Institute of Jamaica, the Order of Distinction, Officer Class (OD) and the Prince Claus Laureate Award in 2012.

Dr Lakshmi Persaud has gained international eminence for her literary works. After completing her BA (Hons) and her PhD at Queen’s University, Belfast, UK and Postgraduate Diploma in Education at Reading University, UK Dr Persaud returned to the Caribbean where she taught at the secondary school level in Trinidad, Guyana and Barbados. Further to this, she once again travelled to the United Kingdom where she began her illustrious writing career as a novelist, short-story writer and literary commentator. Dr Persaud has authored five books, one of which, ‘Butterfly in the Wind’ was a ‘best book’ selection by the London Library Association. 

Dr Persaud’s work has been lauded by respected Caribbean academics such as Professor Kenneth Ramchand and Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie and is used at universities in North America, the UK and at all campuses of The UWI. In recognition of her work, Dr Persaud is the recipient of a number of awards and honours: a Research Fellowship in her name was established by the Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies at Warwick University, UK. Her significant contribution to the development of Trinidad and Tobago’s Literature was recognized when she was conferred a Life Time Literary Award by the National Library and Information System Authority (NALIS) as part of the 50^th Anniversary Independence Celebrations.

Ms Marina Salandy-Brown BA, PG Dip, DLitt, FRSA, has had a distinguished career in media, the arts and literature. An international prize-winning programme maker she has made extensive contributions to the cultural landscapes of both Trinidad and Tobago and the United Kingdom. She was a former editor of the Melrose Press in London, a Governor of the University of Westminster and a Former Trustee of the Koestler Awards to support and fund Arts in prisons in the UK. Ms Salandy-Brown served as a senior executive with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), where she was critical to strategic policy making and the conception and production of radio programmes. 

Since her return to Trinidad and Tobago, Ms Salandy-Brown has contributed a weekly column to the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday, is a consultant to the Trinidad and Tobago Film Company and also works across the Caribbean as a media consultant. Her crowning achievement and contribution to the cultural life of Trinidad and Tobago, and indeed the Caribbean, is the Bocas Lit Fest, first held in 2011. Ms Salandy-Brown is the founder and director of this annual literary festival which has established itself as a major national, regional and international festival of Caribbean literature and has attracted outstanding writers from the Caribbean and abroad − both established authors and emerging or aspiring writers. 

Ms Salandy-Brown has received a number of awards for her exceptional work over the course of her career, including the Programme of the Year award in 1990 from the UK Television and Radio Industries Club; Radio Journalist of the Year in 1994 (UK) and the Sony Gold Award for Best News Programme in 2000 (UK) for her work with BBC Radio.

An acclaimed medical researcher, Dr Theodosius Poon-King MD, BSc, FRCP Edin FACP has made tremendous and invaluable contributions to medical research in areas such as diabetes, acute rheumatic fever, paraquat poisoning and scorpion sting mycocarditis. He was the first to report on a link between scorpion stings and myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle), and published the report in the British Medical Journal. He is also credited with undertaking the first nation-wide survey of diabetes in Trinidad in 1961. He presented this study at the International Congress of Diabetes in Stockholm, Sweden in 1967, and in 1968 it was published in The Lancet, one of the most respected medical journals in the world. 

Dr Poon-King founded the Streptococcal Disease Unit at the San Fernando General Hospital in 1966 to investigate and control the recurrent epidemics of acute nephritis and high incidence of acute rheumatic fever in South Trinidad, and in collaborative research with scientists from the USA and UK discovered four new nephritogenic streptococci in Trinidad. Resulting from the research, the recurrent epidemics of nephritis were brought under control and both acute rheumatic fever and post streptococcal nephritis have been virtually eradicated in Trinidad. In 1974, Dr Poon-King began research on paraquat poisoning with Dr Rasheed Rahaman and designed a treatment which he later modified in collaboration with Dr Edward Adoo.  Their treatment is known internationally as the Adoo – Poon-King regime and was published in The Lancet and the Journal of Clinical Toxicology. 

Dr Poon-King is a member of the World Heart Federation, the Caribbean Cardiac Society and the New York Academy of Sciences. He is also a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, the American College of Physicians and the Royal Society of Medicine. For his unparalleled scholarship, Dr Poon-King received the Trinidad and Tobago Chaconia Gold Medal for contributions to medicine in 1975, The Papal Medal (from His Holiness Pope John Paul II) for services to medicine in 1983 and the Commonwealth Caribbean Medal Research Council Award in 1995 for distinguished medical research in the Caribbean.

CAVE HILL CAMPUS 

Sir Henry de B. Forde - LLD 

Sir Henry de Boulay Forde, QC is recognised as a legal luminary in the Caribbean region. The holder of BA, MA and LLM degrees from Christ’s College, Cambridge, he was granted Barrister-at-Law qualifications from Middle Temple - Inns of Court, London. He taught at the College of Arts and Sciences when UWI first entered Barbados in 1963, and played a critical role in helping the University build its reputation during those initial years. When the College became the Cave Hill Campus in 1970, he served as advisor to Sir Sidney Martin, former Principal of the Cave Hill Campus. Sir Henry became a Member of Parliament in Barbados in 1971 and over the course of his distinguished political career he held the positions of Attorney General, Minister of External Affairs and leader of the Barbados Labour Party. As Attorney General, he championed the creation and implementation of legal equality for women; securing their rights as mothers and wives in property and marital law.   For the period between 1976 and 2008, Sir Henry also served as a member of the Privy Council. 

Sir Henry continues to offer his services in civil society in his capacities as a member of a number of professional societies such as the Inter-parliamentary Human Rights Network, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance and the Barbados Museum and Historical Societies. For his meritorious service to Barbados, Sir Henry was conferred the order of Knight of St Andrew by the Office of the Governor-General of Barbados.

Former mayor of Castries, St Lucia (1970-1971), Dr Julian Hunte, has provided exemplary civil service to St Lucia and the Caribbean for over 50 years. Joining the St Lucia Labour Party in 1978, he became its leader in 1984 and three years later was elected to Parliament, serving as Leader of the Opposition until 1996. In 2001, he was appointed to the Senate of St Lucia and served as the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs until 2004. 

On the international front, Dr Hunte was St Lucia’s Ambassador to the United Nations and was elected as President of the UN General Assembly, a position he held from 2003 to 2004. Dr Hunte has also provided service to the banking and financial sector in his business career as Chairman and Chief Executive of the Julian R. Hunte Group of Companies, with a network of agencies dealing with insurance, real estate, packaging and storage. 

In the sporting arena, Dr Hunte participated in the game of cricket, in the capacities of both player and administrator at the national, regional and international levels. He served as President of the St Lucia Cricket Association and the Windward Islands Cricket Board and was a Vice-President of the West Indies Cricket Board before his succession to President in 2007.

Sir Keith Hunte has dedicated his life and career as an educator and public servant to the advancement of Caribbean people. Soon after the completion of his Master’s degree, Sir Keith joined the staff of the University in Barbados as an Assistant Lecturer in 1964. One year later, he was promoted to Lecturer and moved through the ranks at the Cave Hill Campus to the post of  Senior Lecturer in the Department of History (1975), Deputy Principal (1980) and Campus Principal in 1983. 

In addition to his extensive administrative portfolio at the University, Sir Keith wore many hats in his service to civil society. He served as Chairman of the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation; Deputy Chairman of the Electoral & Boundaries Commission, Barbados; Chairman of the Public Services Commission, Barbados and Chairman of the Caribbean Examinations Council. Most recently, he held the position of Chairman of the Committee for National Reconciliation, Barbados; a committee which was formed to resolve issues of social injustice and economic inequity in Barbados. On the occasion of the 21^st Anniversary of the Independence of Barbados, Sir Keith Hunte was made a Knight of St Andrew – the highest National Award of Barbados – in recognition of his contribution to Higher Education in the Caribbean.

One of the few women in the world to have been appointed Governor of a Central Bank, Dr Marion Williams was for a decade the first female Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados, spanning the years 1999-2009. She has also served in a number of professional positions, most notably as a founding member and the first President of the Barbados Institute of Banking and Finance, former Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC) and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Caribbean Centre for Monetary Studies (CCMS). 

An economist by training, Dr Williams holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from The University of the West Indies and a PhD from the University of Surrey. She is also a Fellow of the Institute of Bankers (FCIB) of the UK and a Certified Management Accountant (CMA).  In addition to her distinguished career in economics, Dr Williams is also an accomplished academic. She has been an advisor in the establishment of graduate programmes at the Cave Hill Campus and is the author of three books, ‘Liberalising a Regulated Banking System: The Caribbean Case’, ‘Managing Public Finances in a Small Developing Economy – The Case of Barbados’, and ‘Strategic Repositioning: A Caribbean Perspective on Economic Policy Making. 

In 2006, Dr Marion Williams was honoured with the Award of Honorary Fellow of the Caribbean Association of Banking and Financial Institutes (CABFI) and was also the recipient of the Gold Crown of Merit, a national honour bestowed upon her by the Government of Barbados.

During his episcopacy, Bishop Brome paved the way for the implementation of a number of bold and progressive measures including the ordination of women in the priesthood, the establishment of a Diocesan Health Scheme for clergy and lay employees of Synod and the creation of a fund for the on-going training of clergy. An icon of social causes, Bishop Brome was instrumental in situating the Church at the forefront of national concerns such as HIV/AIDS education, caring for the drug addicted and building an infrastructure for an agenda of social engagement and leadership.

OPEN CAMPUS

Ms Joan Armatrading - DLitt 

Ms Joan Armatrading is noted for being one of the most talented and eclectic musicians to emerge from England. A native of St Kitts Ms Armatrading is a graduate of the UK’s Open University and holds a BA in History. She has had a remarkably long and successful career spanning 40 years, 17 studio albums and several live albums and compilations. She began writing lyrics and composing music at the tender age of 14, and wrote all the music, performed the vocals and played an array of instruments for her debut album ‘Whatever's for Us’ (1972) a veritable testament to her musical genius. During that decade, she made a number of appearances on the John Peel show, a popular British radio show, where she performed her music to much critical acclaim. Joan Armatrading has played alongside musical greats such as Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton. Her recent media appearances include a five-part series on BBC Radio Four ‘Joan Armatrading’s Favourite Guitarists’ (2009) in which she interviewed guitarists about their music and techniques. Her latest album, ‘Starlight’, was released in 2012.  

Mr Robert Mathavious has been a driving force in the financial services sector of the British Virgin Islands for many years. The holder of a BSc Economics for The University of the West Indies and a MBA from Georgetown University, Mr Mathavious served as Financial Secretary for the Government of the British Virgin Islands (1985-1991). During his tenure, he chaired an ad-hoc committee that developed the draft legislation of the Banks and Trust Companies Act and the Company Management Act, both of which were enacted in 1990. Mr Mathavious was appointed as Director of Financial Services in 1993 and was charged with the development and regulation of the financial services sector. Consequently, he was critical to the design of legislation to establish the Financial Services Commission, through the Financial Services Commission Act of 2001 and was subsequently appointed to his present post as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Commission in 2002, on the recommendation of the Board of Commissioners to the Government.  

Mr Mathavious also contributes significantly to a number of professional boards. He is a member of the Financial Investigation Agency Board, the FATCA Negotiating Team for the Virgin Islands and the Tax Information Exchange Agreement Negotiation Team for Government of Virgin Islands. He is a Fellow of The Offshore Institute (1990) and received the Rotary Club of Road Town Citizen of the Year award (1994-1995).

End

About UWIOver the last six decades, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged University with over 40,000 students. Today, The UWI is the largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, with main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. The UWI recently launched its Open Campus, a virtual campus with 45 physical site locations across the region, serving 16 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean. The UWI is an international university with faculty and students from over 40 countries and collaborative links with over 60 universities around the world. Through its seven Faculties, The UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science & Technology, Food & Agriculture, and Social Sciences. 

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)

2023 | 2022 | 2021

2020 | 2019 | 2018

2017 | 2016 | 2015

2014 | 2013 | 2012

2011 | 2010 | 2009

2008 | 2007 |

• January
• February
• March
• April
• May
• June
• July
• August
• September
• October
• November
• December

The University of the West Indies

St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago

Tel: (868) 662-2002 | Fax: (868) 663-9684

© 2004 - http://www.sta.uwi.edu. All Rights Reserved.
Disclaimer | Privacy Statement