Our Food, Our Health, Our People – Accelerating aims to build momentum for the implementation of healthy food policies as part of the HCCs transformative new NCD agenda grounded in the principles of human rights and equity. This event will bring together diverse actors including civil society, the public sector, people living with NCDs, young people and the private sector to share and learn about the varied and complex strategies needed to create healthier food environments by shaping and securing healthy food supplies, safeguarding and fostering healthy food policy making and supporting civic action.
There will be 10 unique lunchtime sessions - Conversations with Experts on NCDs & FOOD. Register now to choose yours
Please note that all sessions will be available for viewing for 30 days after the event
8.30 am – 9.00 amYouth Steel Pan
9.00 am – 9.28 am 9.30 am – 10.30 amOUR FOOD: Shaping a Healthy Food Supply
Dr. Kenneth ConnellHCC Board Member, UWI etc.
Dr. Kenneth Connell currently wears several hats in connection with his substantive duties as a UWI lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology and a hypertension specialist who runs the QEH’s Hypertension Clinic.
He is:
Professor Fitzroy HenryUniversity of Technology, Jamaica
Professor Fitzroy Henry served 17 Caribbean countries for 18 years as the Director of The Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute (CFNI) - a specialized Center of PAHO/World Health Organization. For 14 years he was the Editor-In-Chief for CFNI’s Journal CAJANUS and its newsletter NYAM NEWS.
Since obtaining his doctorate from the University of London he worked as a researcher, lecturer, author and consultant on 5 continents. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles as first author on Food and Nutrition in Illness, Wellness, Sports; Management, Food Economics; Food Policy; Chronic Disease; Obesity and Public Health.
Since joining the University of Technology, Jamaica in 2013 he developed a unique Post-Graduate program in Public Health Nutrition to train a cadre of leaders to address the problems of Food Security, Obesity and NCDs in this hemisphere. This training program has attracted several scholarships for talented students from across the region.
Nigel DurrantAgricultural Trade Specialist, CARICOM Secretariat
Mr. Nigel Durrant, a national of Jamaica, is the Agricultural Trade Specialist at the Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) of the CARICOM Secretariat and is based in Guyana. He has also worked for both the governments of Jamaica and Guyana.
Mr. Durrant, who has degrees in economics and agricultural economics, has worked in agricultural policy and programming, and agricultural trade negotiations for many years working in this area. His involvement in agricultural trade negotiations has spanned several arenas, including the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the Caribbean and the European Union, the CARICOM-Canada trade negotiations, and the World Trade Organization (WTO) for which he is currently supporting the coordination of CARICOM’s positions on the fisheries subsidies negotiations.
Mr. Durrant also works in the area of agribusiness promotion, and supports the work of the Agricultural Development Unit of the CARICOM Secretariat.
Mr Jacinto BuenfilPolicy Officer Environment and Climate Change, FAO
Opening Remarks:
Keithlin CarooFounder of Helen’s Daughters, St. Lucia
A rural woman, first and foremost, Keithlin Caroo is an advocate and changemaker in the fields of gender equity in agriculture and rural development in St. Lucia. She is also the founder of ‘Helen’s Daughters’ a regionally recognized and award-winning nonprofit organization that focuses on rural women’s economic empowerment through advocacy, capacity development and improved market access. The organization started in 2016, when it was selected as one of the winners of UN Women’s Empower Women Champions for Change Program. While her academic background lay in the field of International Relations and Political Science, having served the last five years at the United Nations Secretariat in New York in the areas of Peacekeeping and Political Affairs, she has never forgotten her farming roots, which is what led to the creation of Helen’s Daughters. Ms. Caroo is a One Young World Ambassador, the recipient of the 2018 National Youth Award in Agriculture by the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports in St. Lucia, aThought for Food Ambassador for the Caribbean, a Forbes Island Innovation feature and most recently the first ever English-speaking Ashoka fellow in Latin America and the Caribbean.
10.30 am – 10.45 am 10.45 am – 11.45 pmOUR HEALTH: Shaping a Healthy Food Environment
Nicole FosterHCC Policy Advisor, Deputy Dean, Faculty of Law, UWI.
Nicole Foster is an Attorney-at-Law and Deputy Dean, Academic and Student Affairs, Cave Hill Law Faculty, University of the West Indies (UWI). She holds a LL.B degree from UWI and LL.M degrees in international law and international organisations from Cambridge University and Washington College of Law respectively. Mrs Foster’s areas of specialisation are public international law, international human rights and international trade law. She is a former diplomat who acted as Counsellor in the Permanent Mission of Barbados to the UN and the WTO from 1999 to 2005 primarily covering dispute settlement, agriculture and intellectual property. Besides her substantive post at the UWI, Mrs. Foster is also Policy Advisor with Healthy Caribbean Coalition and has been working closely with key regional stakeholders such as PAHO and the CARPHA to accelerate CARICOM’s response to its NCD epidemic.
Vilroy LewinHealth promotion Coordinator for the Department of Health in Bermuda
Since 2010, Dr. Virloy Lewin has been the Health Promotion Coordinator for the Department of Health on the island of Bermuda. During her tenure, she has partnered with other professionals and agencies to implement a number of strategies to improve the health of Bermuda residents, specifically focusing on Healthy Eating and Active Living (HEAL). Some of these strategies include, Move More Bermuda; Know Your Numbers Health Screenings; Celebrating Wellness; $aver the Flavour Grocery Store Initiative; Grow. Eat. $ave Gardening Workshops; and Bermuda 50 Million Steps Challenge.
Dr. Lewin is currently working with in collaboration colleagues to develop a Framework to Halt the Rise of Obesity and Diabetes in Bermuda. This framework will take an all-of-society approach to tackle these very serious threats to public health.
Additionally, Dr. Lewin currently chairs the Well Bermuda Partnership, which has been in existence since 2006. She also serves on a number of committees, internal and external to the Department of Health.
Prof. Franco SassiImperial College, London
Professor Franco Sassi graduated with a degree in economics and a doctorate in health economics from the University of London in 2000. He is currently Chair in International Health Policy and Economics and Director of the Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation at Imperial College Business School, and a Senior Health Economist at the OECD (on leave). Previously he was Senior Lecturer in Health Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and held adjunct and visiting positions at a number of universities in the US, including the University of California at Berkeley, Harvard University, the University of California at San Francisco, and Duke University — as well as at the at the Université de Montréal in Canada and at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome. Professor Sassi's research focuses on economic analysis of health services, the economics of chronic disease prevention and measuring inequalities in access to healthcare. He is Principal Investigator and Project Coordinator on the European Commission funded Horizon 2020 project Science & Technology in childhood Obesity Policy (STOP). He is the lead author of Obesity and the Economics of Prevention: Fit not Fat (OECD and Edward Elgar, 2010), editor and author of Tackling Harmful Use: Economics and public health policy (OECD, 2015) and Promoting Health, preventing disease: The economic case (OUP, 2015); and author of a large number of publications on the economics of chronic disease prevention. He was awarded a 2000–2001 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellowship in Health Care Policy.
Dr Aneselm HennisNCDs and Mental Health Director, PAHO
Dr Anselm Hennis, MB.BS, MSc., PhD, FRCP(UK), FACP is Director, of the Department of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, PAHO/WHO. This Department provides technical cooperation on noncommunicable diseases, risk factors, nutrition, and mental health throughout the Americas. Dr Hennis qualified in Medicine (University of the West Indies; UWI) and specialized in Internal Medicine in the UK. He was Wellcome Fellow to the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK, obtaining a masters and doctorate in Epidemiology. He has held positions as Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology (UWI), and Research Associate Professor, Stony Brook University, NY. Dr Hennis has collaborated on NIH-funded studies authoring or co-authoring 150 papers. He has trained physicians, public health practitioners and researchers; and advised governments, federal and international agencies.
Joy AdamsonChief Education Office, Barbados Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training (METVT)
Bio Coming Soon
Ms. Vonetta NurseAdvocacy Officer (GHAI Project) Heart Foundation of Jamaica
Vonetta Nurse is currently the Advocacy Officer for the Global Health Advocacy Project at the Heart Foundation of Jamaica, where she is involved in sensitization and advocacy activities for obesity prevention and health food policies, and supports the Jamaica Coalition for Tobacco Control.
She holds a Master of Public Health specializing in Health Education/Promotion from UWI, Mona and is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Public Health Nutrition at UTECH, Jamaica. She has had professional experience in food safety, quality management, health promotion and advocacy, public health nutrition and standards development.
She is passionate about improving the health of the Caribbean population through health promotion and policies for the prevention of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).
Ms. Courtney MillsFounder of Ulu foods
Courtney Mills graduated from Harvard Kennedy School’s Master in Public Policy program with a concentration in Political and Economic Development. Prior to graduate school, Courtney received her Bachelors in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin.
Courtney started her career working for some the best corporations in America including McKinsey & Company where she advised Fortune 500 companies on strategic issues such as reducing costs in the supply chain and analyzing high potential investments. She also worked at Procter & Gamble where she worked on increasing the market share of the billion-dollar Olay brand. For her charitable work, Courtney worked at the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation where she helped them develop their expansion strategy to Africa.
After graduate school, Courtney moved to Kenya to start an international NGO called Sinapis (www.sinapis.org). Sinapis is a global accelerator program for entrepreneurs in developing nations that focuses on job creation in some of the poorest countries in the world. Sinapis now operates in 10 countries and 14 cities around the world. Courtney served as the Executive Director until the end of 2017 when she stepped onto the board after the birth of her second child.
In 2019, Courtney and her family moved to Barbados for her husband's job. There, she fell in love with breadfruit due to the fruit's versatility and ability to create foods that her kids could eat. She started a new food company called Ulu Foods that creates gluten, dairy and nut free products made from breadfruit. Ulu Foods is also a social enterprise that exists to fight food insecurity around the world.
11.45pm – 12.00 pm 12.00 pm – 12.45 pmA conversation about managing conflicts of interest and interference in healthy food policymaking
Sir George AlleynePatron, HCC, Director Emeritus, PAHO, University of Glasgow
Sir George A.O. Alleyne obtained his bachelor of medicine and surgery degree from the University of London in 1957 and his M.D. from the same university in 1965. He began a career in academic medicine in 1962 at the University of the West Indies, and was appointed Professor of Medicine in 1972. Dr. Alleyne has served as a member of various bodies, including the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee of the WHO Tropical Disease Research Program and the Institute of Medicine Committee on Scientific Investigation in Developing Countries. From 1970 to 1981, Dr. Alleyne served as a member and chair of the PAHO Advisory Committee on Medical Research. Dr. Alleyne joined the PAHO staff in 1981 as chief of Research Promotion and Coordination. In 1983 he became Director of Health Programs Development, and in 1990 he became Assistant Director of the Organization.
In 1995 Dr. Alleyne began his first term as Director of PAHO. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II made him Knight Bachelor in 1990 for his services to medicine. In 2001 Sir George Alleyne was awarded the Order of the Caribbean Community, the highest honor that can be conferred on a Caribbean national. He ended his second four-year term as Director of PAHO in 2003.
Dr. Joy St. JohnExecutive Director, CARPHA
Barbadian born Dr Joy St John entered QC in 1971, determined to become a doctor since she was age 6.
In 1986 she entered the Mona Campus of the UWI to study Medicine, graduating with her MBBS in 1991. During her internship, she found that the specialty of Public Health very exciting and in 1996, she graduated from the Mona Campus with the Master of Public Health placing first in her class.
Dr St John not only loved the Public Health specialty but once she started acting at the Ministry of Health, discovered that she really found her greatest satisfaction in the challenge of administration of programs and projects which had benefit at the population level.
Some of these included:
Research into Cervical Cancer programming for older women, the closure of the Christ Church District Hospital, the development of the Alternative Approach to Care of the Elderly, the creation of the Fast Track Service at the Winston Scott Polyclinic, Extended Hours Services at Randall Phillips and Maurice Byer Polyclinics and the Adult MMR campaigns.
Dr St John rose in the ranks of Public Health in Barbados from 1994 to become the first Barbadian Chief Medical Officer of Barbados in 2005. Dr St John held the position of International Health Regulations Focal Point, Liaison Officer for IAEA for Barbados and sat on the QEH Board, the NCD Commission and the Board of the Barbados Water Authority, among many.
Dr St John also represented Barbados on the Executive Board of WHO and then became the first Caribbean person to Chair the Executive Board from 2012 to 2013.
Dr St John had two stints with other organizations during the twelve years she was the CMO. She was a Senior Advisor with WHO, supporting the co-facilitators of the UNGA Review of the High-Level Summit on NCDs in 2014, then she was the Director of Surveillance, Disease Prevention and Control at CARPHA from October 2015 to August 2016 until she left finally left the post of CMO in 2017 when she became the Assistant Director General at the WHO HQ in Switzerland. There she held the Portfolio of Climate and Other Determinants of Health and successfully completed the first phase of the Climate Change and Health SIDS Initiative.
In July 2019 Dr St John became the Executive Director of the Caribbean Public Health Agency. There she has steered CARPHA through a CARICOM Evaluation, selected new Directors, improved the governance and accountability frameworks of CARPHA, as well as focused on strengthening CARPHA’s resource mobilization and partnership portfolios.
CARPHA has led the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic and Dr St John’s leadership has seen her have over 200 speaking engagements about COVID-19 as she engages with multiple sectors, and the Health leaders and Heads of Government in CARICOM.
Ms. Kimberley BenjaminRecent Law Graduate, Healthy Caribbean Youth Advocate
Kimberley Benjamin is an Attorney-at-law who was called to the Bar of Barbados in 2020. Her areas of focus are legislative drafting, international human rights law and health law. She is passionate about the use of law to promote health and wellness and aims to be influential in filling existing gaps and in developing new policies and laws which address the rights of the most vulnerable.
Kimberley has served as an intern or consultant with the United Nations Development Programme, Subregional Office for Barbados and the OECS, the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization, Office of Subregional Program Coordination and the Healthy Caribbean Coalition on matters pertaining to health and human rights. She is currently working part-time as a consultant with the CCJ Academy for Law.
She is a member of the Healthy Caribbean Youth and the Barbados Alzheimer’s Association. Kimberley is also engaged in a personal service project to provide free report writing services to the families of persons in long term care facilities in Barbados who experience any form of abuse.
Mrs. Barbara McGawProgramme Manager, Heart Foundation of Jamaica
Mrs. McGaw has informally advised the HCC since its inception on all matters related to tobacco control. Since June 2016, Mrs. McGaw has been volunteering as tobacco adviser to the JCTC. Prior to that she was the Project Manager Tobacco Control for the Heart Foundation of Jamaica/Jamaica Coalition for Tobacco Control (JCTC) and successfully managed the tobacco control project grants since 2008.
Mrs McGaw’s background is primarily science based. Her academic background includes a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Science from the University of the West Indies (UWI) and further studies with a postgraduate Management Diploma from a Leicester University (UK) and courses in Project Management. Mrs McGaw has also completed leadership and certificate courses through the Institute for Global Tobacco Control, John Hopkins School of Public Health. The online course Global Tobacco Control: Learning From the experts in 2010, the Global Tobacco Control Leadership Programme in 2010 and the Global Tobacco Control Certificate Programme in 2012.
Mrs McGaw has presented at several regional and international conferences on regional project successes in tobacco control, including the 4th Latin America and Caribbean Conference Tobacco Or Health San Jose Costa Rica March 2014, the International Conference on Public Health Priorities in the 21st Century, Delhi, India September 2013, the 15th World Conference on Tobacco or Health, Singapore, March 2012 and the 2nd SRNT IAHF Conference Mexico City Mexico October, 2009, the 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health, Mumbai India, March 2009
Mr Julian RogersCaribbean Broadcaster and Journalist
Julian Rogers MBE is the Managing Director of the Jamaica Observer. He is best known as a regional broadcaster and journalist. A graduate of the UWI, Rogers has been in the media for more than 50 years and served in several Caribbean countries as a manager in the leading media houses of the region. His current on-air assignment is that of the host of Caribbean Bridges, conversations about our common destiny.
12.45 pm – 1.45 pmConversations about NCDs & Food
1.00 pm – 1.30 pm 1.30 pm - 1.45 pm 1.45 pm – 2.45 pmOUR PEOPLE: Shaping a Healthier Future
Mr. Pierre CookeHCC Youth Voices Technical Advisor
Pierre Cooke, Jr. is a renowned name in youth advocacy spaces both regionally and internationally. He currently serves as the Prime Minster of the Barbados National Youth Parliament, a position he has held since 2017. He also proudly represents the students in the Faculty of Law at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus as their Representative on the Guild of Students and the President of the Law Society.
In the international arena, Pierre is well known for his advocacy on adolescent health and wellbeing and has represented Barbados and the region at several international conferences as keynote speaker and a youth expert in youth health advocacy.
Regionally, Pierre is the Technical Advisor of the Health Caribbean Coalition. An advocacy organization made up of over 100 civil society organizations, working towards the improvement of health in the Caribbean and lobbying Caribbean Heads of Government and Ministers of Government to fully protect, respect and fulfil the rights of their people. In his capacity, Pierre advises the executive team on how to meaningfully engage young people and leads sessions aimed at highlighting the necessary steps for protecting the rights of children and young people to health.
Pierre possesses a strong background in equitable systems, human rights and law. As a defender of human rights, particularly the rights of the child, he uses law as a foundation for creating stronger frameworks for the protection of vulnerable groups in society, Pierre hopes to become an International Human Rights Attorney with a special interest in diplomacy and health.
Apart from his academic and volunteer enterprises, Pierre is an avid reader and language/culture enthusiast. He hopes to use his skills and passions for the development of the Caribbean region, particularly their youth and to make an indelible mark on the international legal and diplomatic community as a fierce defender of human rights.
He aims to complete his legal training in the next 4 years and begin his journey towards meaningful representation of marginalized voices.
Pierre says his work and passion for youth development and advocacy is driven by a simple dogma, there should be nothing done for the youth without the youth and his personal experiences keeps him committed to the cause.
His work and contact information can be found on most social media platforms under the pseudonym of @pierrekcookejnr.
Ms. Kerro KnightMember of the Antigua & Barbuda Diabetes Association, Healthy Caribbean Youth, Young person living with NCDs
Kerro Knight is a 17-year-old college student living type 1 diabetes in Antigua. As a young person living with diabetes, she believes that it is critical to bring awareness to the disease and ensure that holistic support is provided for all persons living with non-communicable diseases, particularly for young people. She was a member of the Antigua Rotaract Club's Interact Group where she and her high-school peers focused on community-based projects. Kerro is a current member of the Antigua and Barbuda Diabetes Association (ABDA); she credits the ABDA for creating safe learning spaces and facilitating peer-to-peer discussions that have helped her immensely along her journey thus far. Kerro is currently pursuing a Marketing degree and enjoys graphic design with the hopes of managing her own business in the future. During her spare time, Kerro enjoys sketching and painting.
Ms. Francine CharlesProgramme Manager, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Barbados
Francine Charles is a communications professional with over 26 years of experience in the fields of Journalism, Broadcast media, Public Relations and Communications Strategy with a strong leaning towards developmental and regional projects.
She is currently a consultant with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Barbados in the capacity of Programme Manager for its Childhood Obesity Prevention campaign.
Francine serves on the newly established Queen Elizabeth Hospital Health and Wellness Commission. She and her husband are the co-founders of the Barbados-registered My Child and I Charity, dedicated to effective parenting education.
Francine is a Mass Communications graduate of the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica and the first recipient of the Alva Clarke Memorial Scholarship that gained her a Reuters Fellowship at Oxford University.
She has been married to Joseph Charles for 23 years and has two wonderful daughters.
Fale LesaYouth Advocate, Commonwealth Consultant, NCD Child, New Zealand
Fale Andrew Lesā JP is on both the governing council and the executive leadership team for NCD Child. He is indigenous to the small island of Samoa and now an immigrant in New Zealand. Fale's lived experience of NCD's inspired a career in governance and he's now on the boards of Leukaemia and Blood Cancer NZ, Diabetes Foundation NZ, Kidney Health NZ, and the Bone Marrow Donor Registry. Fale is passionate about equity in healthcare.
2.45 pm - 3.00 pm 3.00 pm – 3.45 pmA Discussion with Chairs of CARICOM NNCDCs: Leveraging COVID-19 and food and nutrition insecurity to tackle NCD Policy
Professor Alafia SamuelsProfessor Alafia Samuels, Retired Professor / Research Fellow, Epidemiology Research Unit, Caribbean Institute for Health Research (CAIHR), The University of the West Indies, Jamaica
Prof T. Alafia Samuels, former Director of the George Alleyne Chronic Disease Research Centre, CAIHR,UWI, is now with CAIHR, UWI in Jamaica. She is a medical doctor, trained at UWI Mona. She also holds a MPH (Masters in Public Health) and a PhD in Chronic Disease Epidemiology, from Johns Hopkins University.
Her career has included both working with the Ministry of Health Jamaica delivering and managing public sector health programmes for 20 years and academia at the University of the West Indies for the last 10 years.
She is a member of the PAHO Technical Advisory Group for NCDs for the Caribbean, Technical Advisor to the Healthy Caribbean Coalition, Chair-elect of NCD Child, Co-chair of World Obesity Federation Policy and Prevention Committee and a Lancet One Health Commissioner. Her research interests include policy, practice and evaluation of NCD prevention and control programmes and translating evidence into practice. She has more than 50 publications in peer reviewed journals. She led the formal evaluation of the CARICOM Heads of Government 2007 Port of Spain Declaration on NCDs, and reports annually on NCDs to the caucus of Ministers of Health of 20 CARICOM countries
A 2016 Lancet profile dubbed her “the fast food watchdog of the Caribbean
Sir Trevor HassellPresident, HCC, Chair, National NCD Commission Barbados
Sir Trevor Hassell is a medical doctor, former Adjunct Professor of Medicine, the University of the West Indies, and Consultant Physician and Cardiologist, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Barbados. He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London, England.
Sir Trevor has held the positions of President of the Caribbean Cardiac Society, President of the Inter American Heart Foundation, and Vice President of the World Heart Federation. He is presently President of the Healthy Caribbean Coalition, a regional civil society alliance established to contribute to the prevention and control of NCDs; Chairman of the Barbados National Chronic Non Communicable Diseases Commission, and Barbados Special Envoy for Chronic Diseases.
Sir Trevor has been engaged for many years in all aspects of the response to NCDs in the Caribbean. In the past decade he contributed to the technical working paper for the Heads of Government of CARICOM Summit on NCDs, 2007; was an active contributing member of the Barbados Delegation to the UNHLM on NCDs, 2011, the UNGA NCD Review Meeting, 2014; and the 67th World Health Assembly. Over the past 8 years he has led the civil society effort in the Caribbean in advocacy, capacity building, and enhancement of communications applying initiatives that included hosting multi-stakeholder regional meetings to inform, consider and implement multi-sectoral approaches to NCDs.
In 2015 Sir Trevor was a member of the WHO GCM/NCD Working Group on how to realize governments’ commitments to engage with the private sector for the prevention and control of NCDs.
Sir Trevor is presently a member of the World Cancer Research Foundation (WCRF) International Policy Advisory Group, a member of The Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) Advisory Group on Advancing the Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD) Agenda in the Caribbean and a member of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) led Expert Advisory Group on Public Health Law in the Caribbean.
In 2013 Sir Trevor was appointed to the Order of Barbados as a Knight of St. Andrew in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the medical profession.
Dr. Leslie RamsammyChair, Presidential National NCD Commission, Guyana
A Microbiologist, DrRamsammy has served in the National Assembly since 1992. The former Senior Min. of Health, Dr. Ramsammy now holds the Portfolio of Minister of Agriculture with the responsibility for Fisheries, Livestock, Other Crops, Agro-energy, Drainage and Irrigation and Forestry.
Dr. Damian GreavesChair, National NCD Commission Grenada
Professor Damian Eisenghower Greaves currently lectures in the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, St. George’s University. His educational and professional qualifications include a PH.D in Health Services Management & Policy, two Master of Science Degrees – one in Public Health and one in Social Sciences, and a Bachelor’s in History & Sociology with Education (with Hons.).
Professor Greaves was a former Parliamentarian and Minister of Government of Saint Lucia between 1997-2009, having served as Minister for Community Development, Culture, Local Government, Cooperatives and Ecclesiastical Affairs from 1997-2001, and Minister for Health, Human Services, Family Affairs and Gender relations from 2001-2006.
He is currently a board member of the Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC), Chair of the Grenada National Chronic Non-Communicable Disease Commission, and member of the Advisory Committee on National Health Insurance in Grenada.
Professor Greaves served as a member of the Grenada Cabinet appointed Preparatory Committee to consider the establishment of The Grenada National Reparations Commission. He now serves as Advisor to this Commission.
He is the author of several publications on health and related areas in international journals.
Dr. Trevor FergusonChair, National NCD Committee, Jamaica
Dr. Ferguson is a senior lecturer in the Clinical Epidemiology at UWI and an honorary consultant in General Internal Medicine at the University Hospital of the West Indies. Dr. Ferguson is part of the Chronic Disease Research Group at the Epidemiology Research Unit, TMRI, UWI and conducts research and holds research grants in the field of cardiovascular disease epidemiology and diabetes
3.45 pm – 3.55 pmVOTE OF THANKS, AND MEETING CLOSE
Maisha HuttonExecutive Director, HCC
Maisha Hutton is the Executive Director of the Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC), the only regional alliance of over 100 NCD focused civil society organisations. Maisha holds a BSc in Microbiology, a MSc. in Molecular Biology and a PGDip in International Health. Prior to joining the Healthy Caribbean Coalition, she worked in HIV/AIDS and STI prevention and control for 10 years.
Maisha has been with the HCC since 2012 where she is responsible for the daily operations and leading on the implementation of HCC’s strategic plan which is underpinned by five strategic pillars: accountability; advocacy; communication; capacity building; and sustainability.
The HCC Secretariat in collaboration with its civil society members – works with national, regional and international public and private partners to drive NCD policy and programming in a number of priority areas including: civil society capacity building; cervical cancer prevention; alcohol policy; tobacco control; food policy; childhood obesity; and strengthening mechanisms for a whole of government and whole of society multisectoral response to NCDs.
While online process analytics flourishes, often it is laboratory analysis which defines final product quality and which provides the yardstick against which analyzer performance will be measured. The lab ensures appropriate quality control for refinery finished products and individual refinery finished products and individual unit operations and provides necessary laboratory support for activities such as operations analysis. In other applications, such as custody transfer, the laboratory analysis becomes the defining arbitrator regarding product specifications Custody transfer occurs when fluids or gases are exchanged between parties, and are based on contractual agreements regarding product quality and volumes. Payment is usually made as a function of the amount of fluid transferred, but in many cases product quality factors such as chemical composition or physical properties may affect the final price. As a result, it is imperative that the fluid be sampled, analyzed and product quality determined. Automating the sampling process reduces the likelihood of human error biasing the sample, and improves data acquisition and retention of chain of custody information. Automated samplers may be used to obtain spot samples or composite samples. Spot samples are taken at one time at one point, while composite samplers are acquired over time and provide a means to determine time or flow weighted averages. The design and implementation of sampling systems requires significant experience and a thorough understanding of design requirements. Requirements for proper sampling will be discussed, as well as automated systems for both spot samples and composite sampling.
Digital Solution for North America, Sensia
Davis is a senior production engineer with 10+ years of relevant experience in various areas worldwide. He has ample experience building Integrated Asset Models for both scopes: long/short term forecast and steady-state optimization. His experience work focuses on implementing automated engineering process towards to Digital Oil Field approach, aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of performing Field/Well Surveillance activities, Integrated Production optimization tasks to ensure resource sustainability and longevity. He is currently responsible for the business development of Digital Solutions for North America at Sensia currently based in Denver, Colorado, USA.
Staff Production Engineer, ConocoPhillips
Production engineer with 20 years experience in the oil industry working for NOCs, consulting and service companies as a Production Optimization and Completions Engineer. Work in well production optimization and well productivity includes well completions, artificial lift and stimulation. Extensive experience in reservoir enhanced oil recovery processes (EOR), high pressure and high temperature (HP/HT) and artificial lift methods. Able to contribute as an individual contributor or team member. Proven leadership skills in managing, developing and motivating teams while possessing analytical, design and problem-solving skills.
This session provides an overview of applications of data science to completions and geology data. It will showcase how integrating data and workflows makes it really easy to interpret relations between frac operations and geologic variations in the reservoir.
Explore building a paraffin prediction application, which is data analytics on gas analysis for paraffin prediction in the Eagle Ford basin.
Professor of Practice, Petroleum Engineering Department, Colorado School of Mines
Jim has over 37 years of experience working in the oil patch for Chevron. Now, he continues his involvement by improving the data foundation for Oil & Gas companies, which means anything around the management of petro-technical and geoscience data to unstructured documents and sensor and field instrumentation, advancing the capabilities of modeling, and advanced analytics as applied to gaining greater insight into the performance of the digital oil field/ integrated operations. His other passion is mentoring the next generation workforce or digital engineers, geo-scientists and information technology professionals, which he does as a professor at the Colorado School of Mines.
His business plan is to become a valuable partner for companies trying to advance their digital oil initiatives. He is partnering with firms, like Noah Consulting who already are helping clients with information management challenges.
Petroleum Engineering Professor, University of Houston
Before joining the staff at the University of Houston as a professor, Birol was the chief scientist of reservoir physics at Shell. He has over 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry and it considered an expert in petroleum engineering. He got his Masters in Petroleum from the University of Alabama, a PhD of Petroleum Engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from the University of Houston most recently.
VP of Analytics, Petro AI
Kyle began his career with Hess where he worked for 6 years as a production and operations engineer. Then, he moved own to start his own analytics company, Datafuel, which provided training & resources for analytics software such as TIBCO Spotfire. From Datafuel, Kyle was recruited to work for Petro AI as their director of Analytics. He quickly moved up from that position and has been the VP of Analytics for over a year. He got his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas Tech University and obtained his MBA from the University of Houston. His colleagues have noted him as hardworking problem solver, unafraid to roll up his sleeves and monstrous issue and find ways to fix it with better data application.
CTO and Founder, Seeq
After obtaining a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a Master’s Degree from Columbia University in electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Brian quickly moved from a senior engineering role to a VP of Technology role within 3 years. By the time he reached the 12th year of his career he was the President of Axxess Unlimited, where he served for 9 years. Then, he took on various roles at Honeywell and Ice Energy before starting his first spin off company, Ice Energy Technologies. Brian stayed with Ice for nine years before starting Seeq, where he is CTO today. At Seeq, innovative big data technologies are applied to transform industrial process data from sensors and instrument systems into useful information and actionable intelligence. This results in faster, smarter insights that improve execution, drive down costs, and increase earnings.
Production Technician, Shell
Kyle obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Petroleum Engineering with a Minor in Petroleum Data Analytics. He was also an Apache Scholar for Undergraduate Research, while there. He graduated and took his first role as a System Business Analyst for M&M Insulation in Oklahoma City. He held that role for 9 years before taking a position as a production data support technician where he has been for the last 2 years. He is a strong information technology professional with a history in the oil and gas industry.
R&D Manager, Well Data Labs
Jessica has been with Well Data Labs, Inc. for the last four years. She started as a Research Engineer and progressed to Research and Development Manager all after becoming a research assistant at the Unconventional Natural Gas and Oil Institute at the Colorado School of Mines while achieving her master’s degree in petroleum engineering. Before her master’s degree she worked in various locations in Latin America for Schlumberger and served as an account coordinator for sand controls systems in Italy for Baker Hughes. She organized the Big Data in Oil and Gas Meetup in 2018 and has been working to keep industry professionals in the industry connected by establishing a networking system. Her global research experience gives her top-notch insight to data analytics in the oil and gas industry. Her latest publication was on leveraging cloud-based analytics in active well defense projects and automated pressure response analyses.
Director of Data, Analytics and Applications, Centennial Resource Development, Inc
Mindy has been with Centennial Resources Development for about 3 years. Before coming to Centennial, she co-founded a data analytics company, Blue River Analytics, where she conducted Spotfire training for oil and gas companies and before that opportunity in her career she was a Spotfire Architect for Forrest Oil Corporation. She gained her extensive background in data analytics in the oil and gas industry after obtaining a bachelor’s degree in integrated sciences from the University of Denver and a Master’s of Computer Information Systems from Boston University.
