UWI, St Augustine appoints first woman registrar

THE University of the West Indie’s Office of Administration at its regional headquarters recently announced new senior appointments across the University.

The St Augustine campus received its new Campus Registrar, Dr Dawn Marie De Four-Gill and new Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Dr Acolla Lewis-Cameron. Dr De Four-Gill is the first woman to be appointed Campus Registrar at the St Augustine campus.

Within the university system, the Campus Registrar is the most senior administrator on the campus, serving as chief administrative officer, chief operating officer and as secretary to all campus committees.

The Registrar’s Office has oversight for student affairs, human resources, OSHE, records and archives and the delivery of services through facilities management and security. Dr De Four-Gill, who served as Acting Deputy Campus Registrar for the past year, has 20 years’ experience in the higher education sector.

According to a release from the university, she has held leadership positions at both the campus and regional level at UWI. Her other appointments at the regional level include director of One-UWI Strategy and University Director of Marketing and Communications.

She led the campus’ marketing and communications function for 16 years and is the founding member of the public relations and marketing steering committee of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (UK).

Her academic achievements include a Doctor of Education (EdD) in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA (Marketing) from CASS Business School, City University London, and a BSc Management Studies (First Class Honours) from The UWI, St Augustine.

She is also a former Chevening Scholar. She holds memberships in numerous local, regional and international professional bodies. The Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS) is the largest of the campus’ eight faculties and Dr Lewis-Cameron will have oversight for the faculty’s administration and its four departments: Behavioural Sciences, Economics, Management Studies and Political Science.

She succeeds Professor Ann Marie Bissessar, who held the portfolio of Dean of the FSS over the past four years. The former Head of the Department of Management Studies has also served the campus as coordinator of the BSc International Tourism Management (since September 2007) programme, coordinator for the MSc Tourism Development and Management (September 2007 to present) programme, coordinator for the PhD Business Administration programme (August 2014 to present) and former chair of the Board of Advisors of the campus’ Centre for Export Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Dr Lewis-Cameron’s teaching experience in tourism education, planning and policy and marketing, coupled with her research and consultancy experience, has provided an all-round understanding of the global industry.

She has written several papers and reports on the topic of tourism and is the lead editor of the publication, Marketing Island Destinations: Concepts and Cases and co-author of Caribbean Tourism: Concepts and Cases. She is actively engaged in research for both the private and public sectors in Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean.

Her academic achievements include an MSc in Hospitality and Tourism Education from the University of Surrey, UK and a PhD in Tourism from Brunel University in the UK.

She serves as vice chairman of the Tobago Tourism Agency Limited and has held leadership positions in numerous national organisations, including the Standing Committee for the Strategic and Sustainable Development of Tourism in Trinidad in the Ministry of Tourism, the Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA), the Tunapuna Government Secondary School and the Tobago Hospitality and Tourism Institute.