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July 2011
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UWI Open Campus Principal gets OBE
The OBE is awarded for distinguished regional or country-wide role in any field; outstanding achievement or service to the community or high professional achievement. Honours are given by Her Majesty on the advice of the Government of the relevant country. Prof Simmons-McDonald has had a 40-year career in academia, beginning in 1970 as a teacher of language and literature at the St. Joseph’s Convent Secondary School in her native St. Lucia and spanning service at the St. Lucia Teacher’s Training College and the Advanced College at Morne Fortune, as coordinator of the United Nations Educational & Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Language Arts Project and Instructor in English Literature and General Paper and as Secretary in the Committee for drafting education regulations under the 1977 Education Act, from 1983-1984. At The UWI, Prof. Simmons-McDonald steadily advanced from Acting Resident Tutor, School of Continuing Studies, St. Lucia; Professor in Applied Linguistics and Head, Department of Humanities & Education to her appointment in 2007 as Pro Vice Chancellor and the first Principal of The UWI Open Campus, a primarily virtual campus, launched in 2008, which offers programmes using multi-mode methodologies, including online and face-to-face modalities. Prof. Simmons-McDonald has done extensive research on reading and literacy in Grenada, St. Lucia and Barbados and has written primary school texts and resource material in English and Kweyol. She has produced a significant body of work which now forms part of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) syllabus and the new Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Harmonized Language Arts curriculum and Teachers’ Guides, Grades K-6. |
Professor Hazel Simmons-McDonald, Principal of The UWI Open Campus, has been named an Officer of the Order of British Empire (OBE) in the Queen of England’s Birthday Honours List for her service and contribution in the field of education.