Seven UWI alumni receive 70th anniversary Pelican Awards
SEVEN DISTINGUISHED alumni of The University of the West Indies (The UWI) were recognised for contributions to their communities and areas of endeavour at the 70th anniversary Pelican Awards.
The special awards ceremony, which was part of Chancellor’s Week, a wider weeklong celebration of the university’s anniversary, was held at the Mona Visitors’ Lodge and Conference Centre at the Mona Campus on Wednesday, July 25.
Awardees were presented with the prestigious Pelican Award, and also received a commemorative rum created by UWI alumnus and honorary graduate, Dr Joy Spence, the world’s first female master blender, along with gifts from the UWI Press, Sagicor, Wisynco and The UWI Bookshop.
The seven awardees – one for each decade of The UWI’s 70year history – are all of Caribbean origin and selected by their peers in recognition of the impact they have made in their professional spheres within their particular communities, the Caribbean and the wider diaspora. Recipients of the Pelican Awards are nominated by chapters of The UWI Alumni Association globally. The seven awardees were:
1948-1958: Dr Lloyd Stanford (Jamaican), retired senior public servant of the Province of Ontario, Canada, and president of Le Groupe Stanford Inc, a consulting firm specialising in multiculturalism, employment equity, bilingualism, human resource development and international development, based in Ottawa.
1959-1968: Dr Karl Massiah (Barbadian), orthopaedic surgeon, founder and head of orthopaedics at Etobioke Hospital – Canada, and pioneering founding member of The UWI Medical Alumni Association.
1969-1978: Professor Merle Collins (Grenadian), internationally acclaimed poet, oral archivist, documentary filmmaker and educator. She initiated the ‘Saraka & Nation’ project, which traces the connection between African cultures in the Americas and sites of memory in Africa and produced a documentary film on the importance of ‘small islands’.
1979-1988: Dr André Irvine (Dominican), a distinguished jurist currently serving on the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario. He has won several awards for his published work encompassing a wide range of subjects, from labour and immigration law to football.
1989-1998: Dr June Soomer (St Lucian), the first female to graduate with a doctorate in history from the Cave Hill Campus of The UWI. A former ambassador of St Lucia to the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, she currently serves as secretary general of the Association of Caribbean States and as chair of The UWI Open Campus Council.
1999-2008: Dr André Haughton (Jamaican), lecturer in the Department of Economics, The UWI, Mona, founded the Valley Foundation that mentors young people in the Rose Heights area of Montego Bay.
2009-2018: Dr Nicole Nation (Jamaican) has received several awards of excellence for her work in the medical field, particularly in autism and disabilities, medical research and community service. She is conceptualiser of the ‘Women of Tomorrow’ mentorship programme.