Professor Elsa Leo-Rhynie

Elsa Leo-Rhynie nee Fairweather grew up in Saint Andrew, Jamaica, where she attended the St Andrew’s High School for Girls and completed her undergraduate education at The University of the West Indies (UWI), graduating with a B.Sc. in Botany and Zoology. She later completed a Graduate Diploma in Education and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology; also, from The UWI. Until 1977, she worked as a high school science teacher, spending periods at Haverstock School (in England) and Meadowbrook High School (in Jamaica).

In 1977, Leo-Rhynie became a lecturer in educational psychology at The UWI School of Education. In 1987, she was appointed Executive Director of the Institute of Management and Production, from where she would leave to assume the position of Regional Coordinator (now University Director) of the Centre for Gender and Development Studies in 1992. In that capacity in 1994 Professor Leo-Rhynie was appointed co-chair of the National Preparatory Commission responsible for producing Jamaica’s Report on the Status of Women for the 4th World Conference on Women, Beijing, China.

In 1996, Professor Leo-Rhynie was appointed deputy principal of the Mona campus, the first woman to be so appointed. In 2002 she was appointed as Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Chair of the Board of Undergraduate Studies at The UWI, Mona Campus. She would again make history in 2006, when she was appointed as Campus Principal at Mona, the first woman to hold the position of Principal at any UWI campus. She was named Professor Emerita by The University of the West Indies following her retirement in 2007.

Throughout her career, Professor Leo-Rhynie’s has exhibited a strong commitment to public service in the field of education and has carried out extensive research in education, gender issues and training. She serves as a member of the Council of the University of Technology; was named chair of the Dudley Grant Memorial Trust (which focuses on improving early childhood education); and in 1999 she was appointed a Director of the Grace Kennedy Foundation. In September 1996 she was appointed to the Privy Council of Jamaica.

Professor Leo-Rhynie was awarded the national honour of Commander of the Order of Distinction in 2000 and the Order of Jamaica in 2015.

In 2013, she was honoured by The UWI Mona Campus in the naming of a new hall of residence as the Elsa Leo-Rhynie Hall, and in 2016 she was the honoree at The UWI Mona Commemoration celebrations when she delivered the commemoration lecture “Change and transformation at UWI 1992-2007: Back on the periphery, looking back”.

In 2016, Professor Leo-Rhynie, in collaboration with Professors Barbara Bailey nd Joycelin Massiah published “The UWI Gender Journey” which carefully documents the visionary commitment and struggles for recognition and respect of a relatively small cohort of dedicated feminist scholars, each of them powerful academics and leaders, as they collaborated to institutionalize gender and development studies at The University of West Indies.

On June 23, 2017 Professor Leo-Rhynie was awarded The UWI Chancellor's Medal by Chancellor Sir George Alleyne at a ceremony at The UWI Regional Headquarters.