Regional
Headquarters, Jamaica. Tuesday, August 11, 2020—The
work and contribution of 12
high-performing members of staff and units at The University
of the West Indies (The UWI) will
be recognised at this year’s
Vice-Chancellor’s Awards
for Excellence.

The 2019/2020
Ceremony for the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards, to be presided over by
Professor Sir Hilary Beckles will see a record number of recipients;
the largest in the Awards’ history. Though traditionally rotated
across The UWI’s physical campuses, the ceremony is expected to
take place virtually in October 2020. The awardees are:

Excellence in
Teaching

Dr Delroy Chevers,
Mona School of Business and Management, Mona Campus

Dr Chris Maharaj,
Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing, St. Augustine Campus

Excellence in
Research Accomplishments

Professor Paulette
Ramsay, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, Mona Campus

Professor Alina
Kaczorowska-Ireland, Faculty of Law, Cave Hill Campus

Excellence in
Service to the University Community

Dr Kimberly
Robinson-Walcott, Caribbean Quarterly, Vice-Chancellery

Excellence in
Contribution to Public Service

Dr Olivene Burke,
Faculty of Social Sciences, Mona Campus

Mr Charles Grant,
International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Sciences (ICENS),
Mona Campus

Dr Floyd Morris,
Centre for Disability Studies, Mona Campus

All-round
Excellence in two or more
areas

Professor Aldrie
Henry-Lee, Sir Arthur Lewis Institute for Social and Economic Studies
(SALISES), Mona Campus

Professor Michelle
Mycoo, Department of Geomatics Engineering and Land Management, St.
Augustine Campus

Excellence in
International Collaboration (Globalisation Award)

UWItv

Excellence in
Multi Campus Research Collaboration (One UWI Award)

The Early Childhood
Quality Initiative Project, Mona Campus

More about the
Awardees

Dr Delroy
Chevers

Dr Delroy Chevers
is an Associate Dean, Senior Lecturer, researcher, mentor and
supervisor who is highly sought after for the value he adds to both
his colleagues and students. His passion for teaching has led him to
advocate for continuous improvement in teaching and learning at the
Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS) at Mona.

As Chairman of the
Mona School of Business and Management (MSBM) Teaching and Learning
Committee; Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research, FSS and
acting Head – Decision Sciences and Information Systems Unit, Dr
Chevers has developed and delivered training seminars specifically
aimed at improving the teaching skills of fellow lecturers.
He is also an active member of the FSS Student Enrichment and
Engagement Committee where he advocates for initiatives toward the
improvement of students’ overall experience.

Dr Chevers believes
in continuous improvement as an educator and is deliberate about
using current technology and interactive teaching techniques. One
such technique is associated learning – the use of life experiences
and current events to facilitate understanding, reinforcement and
application of difficult concepts. Throughout his time at the FSS he
has served as supervisor for 89 students. Dr Chevers records
consistently high student evaluation scores and received the Faculty
Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2010.

He has published 24
peer-reviewed journal articles, two book chapters, three case studies
and 27 conference proceedings focusing on information systems,
project management and sustainable operations.

In 2012, he was
bestowed the prestigious UWI/Guardian Group Premium Teaching Award.
He was also the recipient of the Mona Campus Principal’s Research
Award for Most Outstanding Researcher in 2019.

Dr Chris Maharaj

Dr Chris Maharaj
aims to create happy classrooms where the joy of learning is
stimulated. Over the past five years, the Senior Lecturer of the
Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Department at The UWI St.
Augustine Campus has introduced a flipped classroom and blended
learning environment using one hundred percent original screencasts.
Student evaluations of his courses confirm the tremendous success of
these student-centric approaches. As a result of personal initiative,
Dr Maharaj’s courses are all distance-learning ready.

Dr Maharaj’s
success as an educator is in part, attributed to his ability to
empathise with the student experience. A Fellow of the IMechE
(Institution of Mechanical Engineers), he has since 2014, served as
Facilitator for the UWI IMechE Student Chapter. The IMechE awarded Dr
Maharaj Volunteer Role Model of the Year in 2016 and honoured him for
Outstanding Commitment to Talent Development in 2014.

Among his 39
published journal articles, Dr Maharaj has four focused on innovation
in teaching and learning. He co-authored the paper Performance and
Perception in the Flipped Classroom, which was published in the
journal, Education and
Information Technologies in
2016.

Since joining the
University in 2012, the UWI alumnus has supervised 53 undergraduate
projects and nine master’s projects. He currently supervises two
graduate students; one MPhil and one PhD candidate. He is currently
Chair of the Faculty Curriculum Review Committee and a member of the
Faculty of Engineering’s Blended Learning Committee. He dedicates
himself as a department mentor for students and has created and
delivered workshops for students who are desirous of improving their
grades. As a result of these initiatives, the Department of
Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering is actively considering
formalising a mentoring function for Dr Maharaj.

In 2016, Dr Maharaj
received the UWI/Guardian Group Premium Teaching Award.

Professor
Paulette Ramsay

As an academic and
a writer, UWI alumna Professor Paulette Ramsay has contributed
significantly to Afro-Hispanic studies and Caribbean literature at
large.

Over her academic
career she has produced five scholarly books, six works of fiction,
five textbooks and more than 60 articles including journal essays and
reviews. For its embedded thematic and cultural significance
Professor Ramsay’s work has been translated into various languages
including Chinese, German and Italian. She has also served as a
board member for acclaimed refereed journals including the Unisa
Latin American Report (University of South Africa) and the
Publication of Afro-Latin American Research (PALARA) (University of
Texas, USA).

Professor Ramsay
holds a PhD (Spanish) in Afro-Hispanic Literature; an MA in Spanish
and a BA Language, Literature and Linguistics from The UWI. She
joined the University in 1991, as a Temporary Assistant Lecturer,
then in 1998-2000 as Temporary Lecturer, was appointed in 2002 as
Lecturer and progressed to Head of the Department of Modern Languages
and Literatures.

In 2008, she was
named one of The UWI’s 60 outstanding researchers under 60 and in
2016 received the Principal’s Research Award for the ‘Best
Research Essay’ and ‘Best Book’. Her work Afro-Mexican
Constructions of Diaspora, Gender, Identity and Nation, which
received the award for ‘Best Book’ has been translated to Spanish
and recognised by Hispanic Studies critics, as the first academic
book to present an in-depth research on Afro-Mexican literary and
cultural productions.

Her literature
earned Professor Ramsay recognition from the Farquharson Institute of
Public Affairs (FIPA) in 2018 with the FIPA Award of the Century for
Outstanding Scholarship in Literary and Language Studies and Creative
Writing.

Professor Alina
Kaczorowska-Ireland

Professor Alina
Kaczorowska-Ireland’s expertise is in European Union (EU) Law,
Caribbean Integration and Competition Law, and Public International
Law. She holds a State Doctorate in International Law with great
distinction from the University of Nice in France. She has been
Professor of International and EU Law at The UWI since September
2005. Prior to that she was Professor of EU Law at Southampton
Institute in England and was awarded a Jean Monnet Chair in EU Law in
June 2004. She has taught at University College Cork in Ireland, at
McGill University in Montréal, and at the Grand Ecole de Commerce in
Rennes. She is also qualified as a barrister at the Paris Bar.

Professor
Kaczorowska-Ireland is the leading writer on EU Law and Public
International Law for Routledge of London and New York. She has
published 24 books as a sole author and one monograph as a co-author.
She has 27 peer-reviewed articles with two more accepted for
publication, two book chapters and has presented at more than 15
academic conferences and at several seminars and workshops. Her work
has been widely cited not only by her peers, but also by the
Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

Professor
Kaczorowska-Ireland has been actively involved in Caribbean legal
life. She has provided legal advice to the Organisation of Eastern
Caribbean States and is the drafter of the CCJ’s Referral Manual
Concerning the Initiation of the Referral Proceedings before the CCJ
by the National Courts or Tribunals of the Contracting Parties to the
Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. In 2019, Professor Kaczorowska–Ireland
was inducted into the Hall of Eminent Caribbean International
Jurists. This honour was conferred by the Caribbean Academy for Law
and Court Administration in recognition of her contribution to the
rule of law in the Caribbean and beyond.

Dr Olivene Burke

Dr Olivene Burke is
Executive Director of Mona Social Services (MSS) — the outreach
unit of The UWI’s Mona Campus which works with 14 low-income,
inner-city communities in Kingston, St. Andrew and Montego Bay,
Jamaica. Dr Burke is personally committed to building the social and
intellectual capital of vulnerable, marginalised and at-risk youth
particularly through the MSS and the UWI Township Scholarship
programme.

As an
administrator, Dr Burke grew what was the UWI Township Project to a
fully functional unit of the Mona Campus in eight years. The MSS is
operationalised as a social service company with a 13-member board; a
technical sub-committee; five full time staff members and a database
of 400 volunteers and interns. The Unit has impacted the livelihood
of over 40,000 residents in the target communities. In 2019, the MSS
managed a budget of approximately J$34 million, not including grant
funding totalling upwards of J$37 million.

The UWI Township
Scholarship is a flagship initiative of the MSS. Dr Burke has
championed and contributed to the mentorship and personal development
of recipients. The programme has awarded 86 recipients and produced
36 university graduates.

Along with a robust
social work portfolio, Dr Burke consistently produces scholarly work;
she has co-authored one book; written four book chapters; two journal
articles and eight technical reports. She has also presented at over
20 conferences; produced 25 conference papers and posters; and
delivered several seminars presentations, workshops and guest
lectures.

Dr Burke has
provided technical advice leading to the establishment of several
small businesses and training for 250 youth entrepreneurs. Her
service to the public has included leadership roles in the Lions Club
of Mona and as a Justice of the Peace for the parish of St. Andrew.

Dr Burke is a
recipient of the Anthony N. Sagba Caribbean Award for Excellence for
2020.

Dr Kimberly
Robinson-Walcott

Dr Kimberly
Robinson-Walcott is known for revitalising the Caribbean Quarterly
(CQ) — The UWI’s flagship journal.

Dr Robinson-Walcott
was appointed Editor of the journal in 2010 and has since negotiated
a publishing partnership with Routledge/Taylor and Francis. Effective
2016, the partnership has exponentially increased the Caribbean
Quarterly’s global reach while preserving editorial and design
autonomy. It has yielded a 23 percent increase in institutional
access; a 164 percent increase in downloads and a 79 percent increase
in total revenue.

Dr Robinson-Walcott
has up to July 2020, produced 33 single and double issues of the
Caribbean Quarterly. Her work with the publication has also included
strategic administrative transformation; a redesign of the journal; a
website redesign; and targeted marketing including regional and
international displays.

Dr Robinson-Walcott
continues to publish individual scholarly work. In the last five
years, along with four issues of the CQ annually, she has published a
book chapter; two book reviews; and two peer-reviewed extended
journal articles. Dr Robinson-Walcott is a writer of short fiction
and children’s stories; most recently, three of her short stories
have been published or accepted for publication in 2019-2020. She
also wrote and illustrated her second children’s book Pat
the Cat which was published in
2018.

Her expertise has
led her to serve as an adjudicator for writing and publishing
competitions across the region including the Bocas Literature
Festival (Trinidad) and the Lignum Vitae National Literature Award
(Jamaica). She has served as the Editor of the Institute of Jamaica’s
Jamaica
Journal since 2004, producing 21 single and double issues.

Dr Floyd Morris

An outstanding
public servant, educator and researcher, Dr Floyd Morris has made his
mark advocating for the rights of persons with disabilities. He is a
recognised Caribbean expert on disability and is a sought-after
conference speaker and media contributor.

Senator Dr Morris
was the first person with a visual disability appointed to the
Parliament of Jamaica. He led Jamaica’s negotiation on the United
Nation’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
(CRPD), seeing Jamaica become the first country in the world to sign
and ratify the global treaty. His service to the public has included
his tenure as President of the Senate of Jamaica (2013-2016). He was
instrumental in the passing of the Disabilities Act (2014) and
introduced sign language to the parliament and is currently an
Opposition Senator.

As Director of the
Centre for Disability Studies at The UWI’s Mona Campus, Dr Morris
has mobilised upward of J$90 million in grant funding for projects
under the Centre which was his brainchild. In 2018, Dr Morris served
as Conference Chair for the inaugural Regional Disability Studies
Conference and launched the Regional Disability Index. He has
consistently contributed to making The UWI Mona an environment that
is accommodating to persons with disabilities. Significant
advancements on the Campus include a progressive policy on physical
access to persons with disabilities; modern equipment to aid students
with disabilities; special facilities for student accommodation;
employment for persons with disabilities including students through a
Summer employment programme and the work of the Centre for Disability
Studies in driving research, training, public education and advocacy
for persons with disabilities.

Dr Morris has
engaged approximately 900 persons in cross-industry training on
relating with persons with disabilities. He was the recipient of the
Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Disability Policy and
Legislative Reform in Jamaica in 2012. In 2017, he published By
Faith, Not by Sight — The Autobiography of Jamaica’s First Blind
Senator. His latest
publication is a 2020 book entitled Political
Communication Strategies in Post-Independence Jamaica 1972-2006.

Professor Aldrie
Henry-Lee

The first female
University Director of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and
Economic Studies (SALISES), Professor Aldrie Henry-Lee is a
Sociologist who has researched and published on social policy issues
in Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

Her considerable
research portfolio focuses on public policy, poverty, gender, human
rights and childhood and her work has been funded by several notable
agencies. These include the Canadian International Development Agency
(CIDA), the Department for International Development (DFID), the
Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Pan American Health Organisation
(PAHO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United
Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank. Over the last
five years, she has been involved in seven commissioned research
projects.

Professor Henry-Lee
received the Principal’s Distinguished Researcher Award (2003) and
in 2017, she led the two teams that received the awards for the
project with the most developmental impact and the Project with the
most funds in the Faculty of Social Sciences. She has published
eight books and short monographs; ten book chapters; over 20
peer-reviewed articles; made more than 60 conference presentations
and completed several technical reports. She has also maintained
her excellence in teaching since winning the UWI/Guardian Group
Premium Teaching Award in 2010.

For 14 years,
Professor Henry-Lee has organised the regional Caribbean Child
Research conference which facilitates equal voice to adult and child
researchers. In 2015, the conference produced a policy document with
recommendations for the Prime Minister of Jamaica.

Much of Professor
Henry-Lee’s research has influenced the public policy process and
she has served on several committees and boards including the
Advisory Board of the Child Development Agency (now the Child
Protection and Family Services Agency). She is also a Director,
Kiwanis Club of New Kingston and a Sunday School Teacher at the Sts.
Peter and Paul Church.

Professor
Michelle Mycoo

Professor Michelle
Mycoo is an Urban Planner whose work is relevant to tackling
Caribbean and planetary complexities that relate to people, their
impact on the environment, and the socio-economic consequences for
achieving sustainable development. Her work is dedicated to pivotal
inter-related issues such as land use planning, climate change
adaptation, disaster risk reduction, water management and integrated
coastal zone planning. Her expertise and contributions in addressing
real world developmental challenges have been recognised by the
European Union; the Canadian International Development Research
Centre; and the UK Department for International Development. Such
recognition has led to career research grants totalling approximately
US$4 million (TT$28 million).

As a Professor in
the Department of Geomatics Engineering and Land Management in the
Faculty of Engineering at The UWI St. Augustine Campus, she has
received numerous awards for her outstanding work. These include The
UWI/Guardian Group Premium Teaching Award for Teaching Excellence and
The UWI/National Gas Company Award for Most Outstanding Researcher in
the Faculty of Engineering in 2014.

In addition to her
internationally acclaimed co-authored book, A
Blue Urban Agenda: Adapting to Climate Change in the Coastal Cities
of Caribbean and Pacific Small Island Developing States
written in 2017, Professor Mycoo has published four others; 12 book
chapters and 21 peer-reviewed journal articles. Additionally, her
portfolio includes seven refereed conference proceedings and 40
technical reports. She has reviewed numerous scholarly publications,
presented papers at 19 international conferences and delivered 43
invited presentations, lectures and panel discussion contributions
globally.

Professor Mycoo’s
impactful inter-disciplinary
research has led to her selection to serve as a Coordinating Lead
Author for the Intergovernmental
Panel for Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report: Working Group II
and as a member of
the International Science Council, UNESCO’s Scientific Advisory
Committee for the Management of Social Transformations, Future Earth
Coasts and the Caribbean Resilience and Recovery Knowledge Network.

UWItv

Established in 2016
to expand The UWI’s public engagement and outreach initiatives,
UWItv provides
public information services and education and training programmes to
the region, the Caribbean diaspora and the international community at
large.

Since its broadcast
debut in 2016, UWItv
has made significant strides to underscore the University’s
critical role in public education which strengthens democracy and
promotes regional development, integration and cooperation. A
partnership with FLOW EVO allows UWItv
to deliver 24/7 UWI and Caribbean focused programming to millions of
viewers across 15 nations in the region. Strategically embracing a
multi-media approach, UWItv’s
robust online platforms, including www.uwitv.org and its growing
social media followings, complement the UWItv
channel with additional Caribbean-generated content.

Over the last five
years, UWItv
has demonstrated its ability to secure partnerships with key
international players. These include a UWItv/United
Nations broadcast agreement that provides UWItv
with free-to-air content in the Caribbean region, the United States
of America and Canada. UWItv
is also a media partner of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and
has accessed CDB grant funding. Other collaborations have delivered
reports such as the Global Initiative on Out-of-School Children
(OOSC); a joint initiative of the School of Education, UNICEF,
UNESCO, the Institute of Statistics and the OECS Education
Development Management Unit. CARICOM, the Eastern Caribbean Central
Bank (ECCB) and the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) have all found a
strategic media partner in UWItv.

UWItv’s
commitment to underserved communities has driven its partnership with
the Mona Campus’ Centre for Tourism and Policy Research and the
Mona Social Services (MSS) for The UWI Community Film Project. The
project, funded by the World Bank, offers youth from troubled
communities the opportunity to train in the technical and artistic
elements of filmmaking, producing content around important community
and national issues. The graduates of the project are now members of
the UWItv
team and continue to contribute to its success.

The Early
Childhood Quality Initiative

A cross-campus
early childhood development project; the Early Childhood Quality
Initiative (ECQI) is the brainchild of Dr Zoyah Kinkead-Clark (Mona),
Dr Sabeerah Abdul-Majied (St. Augustine) and Dr Sheron Burns (Cave
Hill). The three are Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)
lecturers at The UWI with a commitment to seeing advancements in
early childhood development in the Caribbean through teacher
education.

The researchers
seek to understand the needs of Caribbean early childhood teachers,
proposing that improvements in ECCE must begin with highly trained
staff. On this basis, the ECQI, launched in 2015, has trained
approximately 1,500 teachers across the region. The collaboration has
also yielded 19 conference presentations, 36 workshops and three
joint articles of which one is already published. Additionally, it
has produced three individually authored articles and three
individually authored book chapters including publications edited by
Principal Investigator, Dr Kinkead-Clark.

The ECQI has
overseen three medium-sized projects; the Mona Campus’ Early
Interactions Project; Gender Socialisation Project at Cave Hill and
The Early Childhood Caravan at the St. Augustine Campus. The unique
design of the projects allowed researchers to address immediate local
needs while assessing teachers’ needs in territories in the
northern and southern Caribbean as well as the Organisation of
Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).

The collaborative
research team through the ECQI have offered answers to questions
concerning the strengths and weaknesses of ECCE teacher training;
professional development of teachers and national policy and gender
equity in ECCE teaching and learning.

Data from the projects is at publication stage and the ECQI promises to yield an additional eight joint publications, 12 individual pieces and a joint symposium targeting early childhood practitioners across the region.

More
about the Vice Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence

The
University of the West Indies’ Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for
Excellence programme was established in 1993 by Sir Alister McIntyre,
then Vice-Chancellor, to recognise outstanding achievements by
Academic staff members in the areas of Teaching, Research, Service to
the University Community, Contribution to Public Service, and
All-round Excellence in a combination of two or more of the areas. In
2003, the recognition scheme was expanded to include Senior
Administrative and Professional staff, and in 2012 the
Vice-Chancellor’s Departmental Award for Excellence was introduced
to recognise departments and units in the area of quality assurance
excellence. In 2016/2017, two new awards were added for Excellence in
Multi-Campus Research Collaboration (the One UWI Award) and
Excellence in International Collaboration (the Globalisation Award).
All awardees, having proven themselves exemplars in their respective
pursuits, are presented with a citation and a monetary prize.

The
Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence is one of the highlights on
the University’s calendar. The ceremony takes on added significance
under the leadership of current Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Hilary
Beckles, who was one of the recipients of the inaugural Award.