Dr. Dee Dee Dynamo by Oneeka Williams, MD

Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame 2012 Inductee, Charmaine Hooper, was born on January 15, 1968, in Georgetown, Guyana. She was raised in Ottawa, Canada, and is a former striker for the Canadian Women’s National Soccer Team. She began playing soccer as a child in Zambia, where her father was posted with the Guyana High Commission. Known as one of the world’s most lethal strikers throughout her career, Charmaine has been a fixture on the Canadian…

The height and volume of water in Kaieteur falls makes it the 26th most visited falls in the world. Being three times the height of Niagara, and twice that of Victoria falls, this water falls is dubbed one of the most powerful waterfalls in the world. Pushing some 663 cubic meters of water per second over the edge of the Potaro River (one of the longest and widest rivers in South America), Kaieteur is considered…

Sharon Maas was born in Georgetown, Guyana in 1951. She came from a prominently political family. Her mother was one of Guyana’s earliest feminists, human rights activists and consumer advocates; her father was Press Secretary for opposition leader and later President of Guyana, Dr Cheddi Jagan. She was educated in Guyana and at the Harrogate College in Yorkshire, England. After leaving school she worked as a trainee reporter with the Guyana Graphic in Georgetown, Guyana. She…

Marianna Hansen (born 17 February 1983), known professionally as Shaya, is a Danish–Greek singer of Guyanese and Indian descent. Shaya was a member of the girl band Hi-5, the result of the Greek version of the talent show Popstars. She is currently pursuing a solo career and finished fifth in Greece’s version of Dancing on Ice. Shaya was born in Denmark to a Danish father and a multiracial Guyanese mother of Greenlandic and Indian descent….

English Teacher, Shamayne Cumberbatch, was born in Guyana, South America and later moved to Irving, NJ. She first attended the local public school before enrolling at Kent Place for middle and high school. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and her master’s degree from Harvard in Education Policy and Management. Before working at the Pingry School, Ms. Cumberbatch participated in the Teach for America program, teaching eighth grade English classes at a charter…

Tania “Mohabeer” Kinsella is a leading female force and inspiration in the heart of diverse New York City. The First Deputy Commissioner of the NYPD—the world’s largest police department—she exemplifies top-notch law enforcement and proudly reflects her rich Guyanese heritage. Her mother, Linnet Mohabeer, a proud New Amsterdam Berbice native from Guyana, and her Jamaican father instilled in her the values of determination, respect, and community. These values, deeply rooted in her upbringing, have propelled her…

Dr. Beryl Agatha Gilroy (née Answick) was a novelist and teacher, and “one of Britain’s most significant post-war Caribbean migrants”. Born on August  30th, 1924 in Guyana (then British Guiana), she moved in the 1950s to the United Kingdom, where she became the first black head teacher to be appointed in the borough of Camden in London at Beckford Primary. Beryl  was born in Skeldon, Berbice, Guyana. She grew up in a large, extended family,…

Vogue.com has named Letitia Wright as one of the actresses to watch in 2018.  According to the fashion and beauty website, the Guyanese-born, London-raised actress will conquer the silver screen alongside Chadwick Boseman in 2018’s Black Panther before reprising her role as Shuri in Avengers: Infinity War. Expect her to swap out her superhero duds for pieces from Burberry and Prada. Back in February we shared that Letitia landed a role in the 2018 Marvel Comics…

Maya A. Trotz, Ph.D., born in Georgetown, Guyana is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida (USF), Tampa. She works at the nexus of geochemistry/water quality and global/community sustainability and education with current and previous student research projects in Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Bolivia, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, and Peru. She currently holds a patent on “Functional composites formed from colloidal polymer particles with photocatalytic metal oxide nanoparticles.” Dr….

The year was nineteen seventy-five. Barren couple, Pearl and Edward Riley stumbled upon a newborn baby girl. Her cries could only be heard by a true mother, which Pearl immediately became. Bundled up with their new child, they discovered a parcel of artifacts and a scribbled note that read: Sakkara. Pregnant seamstress, Petrina Dugal, became a runaway at the age of twenty-six. She ran away from a brutish husband, Roger, and a well-loved South American…

Many of you will agree that Deborah Cox is one of the music industry’s most notable voices.   A multi-platinum selling artist and self-proclaimed diva, Deborah was born on born July 13, 1974 in Toronto to Guyanese parents.   She began singing for TV commercials at age 12, and entered various talent shows with the help of her mother. She performed in nightclubs as a teenager, and began to write music around the same time. Deborah entered the music…

This book is about Mohan and the many challenges he faces at home, as well as, school. Mohan discovers that having family and friends that believe in him and making the effort to do his best, can result in accomplishing the unexpected. Author Anaya Lee Willabus is an eight year old visionary who loves to read and play sports. At the age of two, Anaya Lee was taught to read by her father. She was…

Only 6% of all surgeons in the United Kingdom are female, and Dr. Samantha Tross is one of them. She’s the first Black British woman to become a consultant Orthopaedic surgeon. Samantha was born in Georgetown Guyana on June 30, 1968 to Sammy and Gwendolin Tross. The second of their four children, she went to St. Gabriel’s Primary School before her diplomat father was assigned to England and the family relocated. Samantha obtained a Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery degree…

Meet the Guyana Girls Squash Team! This past July these lovely young ladies retained the Overall Team Title during the 2015 Junior Caribbean Squash Championships in Barbados for the 11th consecutive time.  Guyana was the defending champions having won both the boys and girls’ team titles at last year’s championships in Bermuda. Guyana Girls Squash Champions – 11th Win Guyana females crowned Caribbean Squash Champs – Stabroek News

Ms. Valerie Rodway (1919-1970) was a teacher and Guyanese composer.  She is best known for her national songs, which include, “O Beautiful Guyana,” “Kanaïma,” “Hymn for Guyana’s Children,” “Arise, Guyana,” and “Guyana the Free.  She also put to music the famed Guyanese independence poem by Martin Carter, “Let Freedom Awaken.” Ms. Rodway was a member of one of those families whose contributions to Guyana are still evident. Her father, Newton Berthier Fraser was born in…