THE CARIBBEAN OPEN INSTITUTE

Michael Yee Shui is a demographer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica. He has over eighteen years of experience in teaching university-level courses in research methods, statistics and statistical computing, and consulting on research and data analysis projects. His areas of specialization are family demography and quantitative methods, and his research interests broadly concern family structure and child well-being.

Yacine Khelladi is the Latin America and Caribbean Coordinator for A4AI, where he works to support A4AI’s work across the region. An economist who became a field activist supporting the use of ICT for human and social development, Yacine is based in the Dominican Republic and has over twenty years of experience working on ICT issues in the region. Yacine holds a postgraduate degree in Economics and Business Management from the University of Paris- Pantheon Sorbonne.

Shurland George is a researcher who has done various capacity development projects in the Caribbean since 2016 and has a keen interest in Caribbean sustainable development. Main areas of interest include tourism, education and all things data. Currently living in Toronto, Canada but hails from the great country of Trinidad and Tobago and dreams of the day when he will return to his homeland. Soon come!

Fitzgerald (Gerry) Yaw is a Caribbean and US educated economic development professional who has been working on economic empowerment at the community, regional and national levels since the 1990s. His experience spans the Caribbean, the USA and Canada where he consults/works and does volunteer work on a range of environmental and governance issues. Gerry seeks to foster sustainable development through working on facilitating green economy initiatives and championing improved governance.

Dr. Michelle McLeod is at The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica. Her tourism industry experience spans over 30 years. Her research interests include knowledge networks, destination and policy networks, and service productivity. Dr. McLeod's two co-edited books are 'Knowledge Networks and Tourism' and 'Tourism Management in Warm-water Island Destinations'.

Dr. McLeod received the Principal’s Award for the Research Project with Greatest Economic Impact for the Faculty of Social Sciences for the project entitled “Open Data and Interactive Community Mapping: Empowering Local Community Tourism” in 2018, the Principal’s Award for Research Project Attracting the Most Research Funds in the Faculty of Social Sciences for the project entitled “Harnessing Open Data to Achieve Development Results in Latin America and the Caribbean” in 2016, Best Researcher in the Mona School of Business and Management in 2016, the Institute of Travel and Tourism, PhD Research Student of the Year in 2010, and the UKAIS (United Kingdom Academy of Information Systems) PhD Consortium, Winner of PhD Consortium Best Presentation Prize in April 2008.

Victor Gonzalez is a professor and researcher at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, at the Faculty of Sciences and Engineering. His areas of interest are Data Science, Smart and Sustainable Cities and Open Data. He has led multiple projects with national and international funds to incentive the usage of data for decision making in public and private institutions in the Domincan Republic.