Hon. Madam Justice Minnet Hafiz-Bertram is a Guyana-born Justice of Appeal, and is the first female judge to be elevated to the Belize High Court of Appeals. Before her appointment, Justice Hafiz-Bertram served as a Supreme Court Judge, Register General, Registrar of the Supreme Court and Crown Counsel in the Attorney General’s Ministry. She studied law in Guyana and at the Hugh Wooding Law School, Trinidad and Tobago, where she received her legal education certificate…
Guyanese born
Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett was born in the Amerindian Village of Santa Rosa, Guyana. She received her early education in Santa Rosa and then move to the capital Georgetown to attend a private school. Minister Rodrigues-Birkett then left Guyana for Saskatchewan, Canada, on scholarship, to pursue studies in Business Administration and Indian Studies. Following her return to Guyana in 1993, she read successfully for a degree in Social Work at the University of Guyana, while simultaneously managing…
The lovely and talented Lisa Punch graces the December/January cover of Guyana Entertainment Magazine (GEM). Check out her GGR feature story here. She Rocks!
Guyanese gospel singer/songwriter, Trenacia Esseboom-McKend, is known for her powerful vocals which set her apart from many in the local gospel music industry. She is the first born of two children to Bishop Terrence Esseboom (University of Guyana Print Journalism Lecturer) and Vanessa Esseboom, who both Pastor at the Light of Lights New Testament Church in Georgetown. She acknowledged in the past that growing up with parents who are Pastors has helped her walk with…
Born on January 16, 1982, Thara Natalie Prashad, musically known as Thara, is an American R&B singer/ songwriter/actress of Guyanese Heritage. Her father is Indo-Guyanese and her mother is part Irish and part African-American. While pursuing degrees in biology and acting at Fordham University, the sassy singer gave up her scholarship to pursue a music career. Thara impressed DJ Clue of Desert Storm Label with her audition and was offered a music contract in 2004….
Pauline Melville was born in Guyana in 1948 and has emerged as one of the most accomplished talents on the modern literary scene. Her pre-school years were spent in the then British Guiana. Her father was “mixed-race Guyanese, part South American Indian, African and Scottish”, and her mother came from a “big working-class family” in south London. The family moved to south London in the early 1950s, when she was “five or six”. A professional…
Vannetta Seecharran has been influencing art and design in the jewellery field for nearly 20 years. Born in Guyana in 1969, the London-based jewellery teacher migrated at the age of 11 with her parents to New York City. She graduated in 1991 from the prestigious Parsons School of Art with a BA in Product Design, and in 1996 earned an MFA in Jewellery from State University of New York at New Paltz. She later moved…
Marian Joan Burnett (born 22 February 1976 in Linden) is a Guyanese middle-distance runner who specializes in the 800 and 1500 metres. She competed in the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympic Games, reaching the second heat of the 800 metres on both occasions. She won the first of her three national Sportswoman of the Year awards in 1998 including being a national champion in two sports – track & field and bodybuilding & fitness. In…
Gaiutra Bahadur is a New York-based Guyanese-born journalist and book critic who writes frequently about the culture and politics of global migration. Her reporting, criticism and essays have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Washington Post Book World, The Nation, The Virginia Quarterly Review, The (London) Observer and Ms., among other publications. Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture is her first full-length book. A former daily newspaper staff writer, Gaiutra has covered schools,…
COVER GIRL: 22-Year-Old Guyanese model, RoseAnn Sumner, graces the cover of the current issue of Michigan’s Healthy & Fit Magazine. RoseAnn, you migrated from Guyana at the age of 5, is currently studying Diagnostic Molecular Science at Michigan State University. She Rocks! Check out her story >> here.