Office
of the Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal. Monday, July 16, 2020 –
The
University of the West Indies (UWI) Open Campus is pleased to
announce the appointment of two Senior Managers to the positions of
Deputy Principal and Director of the Open Campus Country Sites
(OCCS). These appointments will take effect on August 1, 2020.

Dr
Francis O. Severin, Deputy Principal

Dr
Francis O. Severin has been appointed to the position of Deputy
Principal. He is currently acting Deputy Principal and was previously
the Director of the Open Campus’ largest and most distributed
division, the Open Campus Country Sites (OCCS), since October 1,
2013. Prior to his formal assumption of the post of Director OCCS in
October 2013, he had acted in that position for long periods between
January 2010 and 2013; therefore, effectively serving in that post
for nearly one decade.

Dr
Severin, a citizen of Dominica, graduated from The UWI Cave Hill
Campus in 1991 with the Bachelor’s degree in History and Social
Studies with Education; and from the Mona Campus twice: firstly in
1998 with the MSc in Sociology specializing in Social Policy and
Administration; and a PhD in Education, in 2006.

He
served The UWI part-time as Local Tutor in The UWI Distance Education
(UWIDEC) Programme, School of Continuing Studies (SCS), in Dominica
from 1994 to 1998, facilitating the courses: Introduction to
Caribbean History for Law and Social Sciences and Introduction to
Sociology of the Caribbean.

On
January 1, 1999, he was appointed to his first full-time role in The
UWI as Programme Officer in the Office of Administration and Special
Initiatives (OASIs), a Centre Unit in the Vice Chancellery,
headquartered then on the Mona Campus in Kingston, Jamaica.
Between 1999 and 2005, he accomplished several initiatives,
including: the reformulation of the framework for Alumni Relations
and the revitalization of The UWI’s connections with its
alumni.

In
August 2005, Dr Severin returned to Dominica to take up the post of
Resident Tutor and Head, School of Continuing Studies. While in that
post he participated in the historical transition from the former
entities that comprised the Board for Non-Campus Countries and
Distance Education (NCC’s & DE) to the Open Campus.

As
Country Head, Dr Severin inaugurated several lecture series,
including the Dame Eugenia Charles Distinguished/Memorial Lecture
Series in December 2006, in collaboration with the Head, Centre for
Gender and Development Studies, UWI, Cave Hill, Professor Eudine
Barriteau; the National Bank of Dominica Ltd./UWI Open Campus
Dominica Distinguished National Lecture Series in May 2008; the Dr
Bernard A. Sorhaindo Memorial Lecture Series in July 2008; and the
Annual Edward Oliver LeBlanc Memorial Lecture Series, in October
2012.

As
Director, OCCS (the largest Division in the Open Campus), Dr. Severin
led his distributed Division over the course of two accreditations
and one mid-cycle accreditation review preparations (initial
accreditation period of 2012/2018, mid-cycle in late 2016 and
re-accreditation 2019/2026). He also led the Country Sites through
the revolutionary Strengthening Distance Education in the Caribbean
(SDEC) Project, from April 1, 2014 to June 30, 2019.

Dr
Severin has served on numerous Campus and University boards and
committees, including: University Council; University Appointments
Committee; Board for Undergraduate Studies (BUS); Board for Graduate
Studies and Research (BGSR); Finance and General Purposes Committee
(F&GPC); Open Campus Academic Board; Senate Committee on
Ordinances and Regulations (SCOR); Campus
Evaluations & Promotions Committee (EPC); Campus Appointments
Committee (CAC); University and Campus ICT Steering Committees;
University Executive Management Team; University Senate and Library
Evaluations and Promotions Committee.

Dr
Severin who is Chair, Committee of Deans (Academic Year 2019/2020),
has been the Public Orator of the Open Campus since 2010. He is the
first male to hold the Office of Deputy Principal of the Open Campus.

Dr
Cheryl Sloley, Director Open Campus Country Sites (OCCS)

Dr
Cheryl Sloley has been appointed Director, Open Campus Country Sites
(OCCS). She is currently serving as Acting Director and previously
served as Deputy Director, Finance, Facilities and Human Resources
for Trinidad and
Tobago and Jamaica.

Dr
Sloley, a Jamaican, holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management
Studies (with Honors) from The University of the West Indies, Mona
(1990); a Master of Business Administration (MBA) (Magna
Cum Laude)
from the University of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA (1999) and a PhD
in Electronic Commerce from The University of the West Indies, Mona
(2014).

Dr
Sloley brings a wealth of knowledge and valuable experience to the
post of Director, having held several senior management positions
over her many years of dedicated service to The UWI. She started her
career at The UWI in 1991 when she worked as Administrative Assistant
in the Office of Development and Alumni Relations University Centre.
She then served as Project Assistant in The UWI’s Project Office,
was seconded to The UWI/CIDA Institutional Strengthening Project as
Project/ Finance Officer and later assumed the position of
Administrative Officer at The UWI Centre for Environment and
Development (UWICED) before moving on to the then School of
Continuing Studies (SCS) in 2001.

In
2002, Dr Sloley was appointed Acting Resident Tutor/Head of the
largest SCS Centre: Camp Road, Jamaica. In that capacity she
spearheaded a comprehensive administrative and financial
restructuring of the Centre. Her significant accomplishments in this
position includeda30
percent increase in student enrollment between 2002 and 2004;
programme re-engineering: introduction of new courses; the revision
of legacy programmes; significant infrastructural development and the
implementation of a new marketing thrust.

During
the years 2008 - 2012 she served in the Office of the Director OCCS
as Regional Coordinator for the Eastern Caribbean and Barbados with
overall responsibility for the coordination and implementation
of the Open Campus’ Strategic Goals and Operational Plans in those
jurisdictions. She was also responsible for ensuring student and
staff satisfaction, and overseeing the administrative
and financial operations of the eleven (11) Open Campus Country Sites
in that region.

In
October 2012 she assumed responsibility as managerial lead for the
Government of Jamaica’s (GOJ) Universal Service Fund (USF) Project
Grant of J$105 million to upgrade the Information and Communications
Technology (ICT) infrastructure of 10 Open Campus Country Sites in
Jamaica. In 2013, Dr Sloley was then appointed as Deputy Director,
Commercial Operations in the OCCS with responsibility for strategic
leadership, student and staff portfolio matters as well as OCCS
growth and development initiatives.

In
August 2019 Dr Sloley’s position was re-designated as Deputy
Director, Finance, Facilities and Human Resources for Trinidad &
Tobago and Jamaica.
Her
strategic leadership and Campus responsibilities included,
among other things, the identification of operational and commercial
development initiative as well as training and development needs,
working in collaboration with Heads of Sites across the Region. She
served as Chair, Open Campus Disaster Recovery Committee (2017-2018),
spearheading the recovery and renovation of the Open Campus
Dominica, BVI, Anguilla and St Kitts and Nevis Sites following the
destruction of Hurricanes Irma and Maria.

Dr
Sloley serves on various constituted bodies of The UWI and the Open
Campus such as Campus Council; Academic Board and the Prior Learning
Assessment (PLA) Steering Committee. She also acted as Director,
OCCS on several occasions between 2013 and 2020. She currently
serves as a member of the University Senate; the Vice-Chancellor’s
UWI Global Online Policy Working Group; The Vice-Chancellor’s
Committee on “UWI: Imagining 2020/21 and Beyond” and is
Co-Convenor for “The Digital UWI” a Subcommittee for “UWI:
Imagining 2020/21 and Beyond.” She has undertaken several research
and consultancies and was responsible for the establishment of a
National Registry of Volunteers for the Council of Voluntary Social
Services (CVSS) in Jamaica.

Dr
Sloley is also a commissioned Justice of the Peace (JP) for the
Parish of Kingston and St Andrew, Jamaica. She also served as the
first female President of the Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains (RCLP),
Jamaica in 2007-08; was the recipient of the Rotary International’s
Governor of District 7020 President’s Award for Outstanding Service
to the RCLP (2004-05); earned the first Gold Award for the RCLP in
2009, and was conferred by RCLP with the highest Order in Rotary,
being inducted as a Paul Harris Fellow (PHF) in 2009 for outstanding
service as President of the Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains.

The
Open Campus wishes these two senior managers success in their new
appointment as they continue to serve the people of the Region on
behalf of The UWI and the Open Campus.