GraceKennedy

Elizabeth Thomas-Hope, M.A. (Aberdeen), M.Sc. (Pennsylvania State University), D.Phil. (Oxford), was the first appointee to the James Seivright Moss-Solomon (Snr.) Chair of Environmental Management at the University of the West Indies and Director of the Environmental Management Unit. She was elected Christensen Fellow at St Catherine’s College, Oxford University, Michaelmas 2011.

At the UWI, Professor Thomas-Hope established the Environmental Management Unit, and developed and directed the Master of Science degree in Integrated Urban and Rural Environmental Management, and a PhD programme in Environmental Management. She also developed MSc degrees in Disaster Management and Sustainable Urbanisation.

Professor Thomas-Hope has published widely on topics relating to the environment as well as on migration and social issues. Among her authored and edited books are: Geography of the Third World; Solid Waste Management – Challenges for Developing Countries; Natural Resource Management and Sustainable Development in the Caribbean; Caribbean Migration; Freedom and Constraint in Caribbean Migration and Diaspora. She was the presenter of the Grace Kennedy Lecture in 1996 entitled, The Environmental Dilemma in Caribbean Context, and the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica public Lecture in 2009, entitled “The Trash Time Bomb: Challenges of Solid Waste Management in Jamaica”. She was author of a report on People on the Move, Managing Migration in Today’s Commonwealth of the Ramphal Commission, as part of its submission to the for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, Perth, 2011.

Her participation at the international level has involved her as: a member of the advisory committee for the UNDP 2009 World Development Report, and a contributor to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) World Migration Report 2010. She is currently a member of the International Advisory Board of the UNDP-EU Joint Migration Initiative; and Honorary Secretary of the Commonwealth Geographical Bureau.

In the Caribbean, Professor Thomas-Hope has contributed to a number of projects of the CARICOM Secretariat and in Jamaica, she has acted in an advisory capacity on issues relating to the environment, including hazard management and disaster mitigation, watershed management, rural development and urban sustainable development (Kingston-St. Andrew and Port Antonio) to the Ministry of Lands and Environment, the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) and the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ). She is currently leading a study for the PIOJ towards streamlining migration into Jamaica’s development policy.

Public Appointments have included: Member of the Government of Jamaica’s Tribunal for the National Resource Conservation Agency Environmental Act; Chair of the Board of the Jamaica Sustainable Development Network; Member of the National Watershed Council, NEPA and the Office of the Prime Minister; Member of the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) Natural Resources Management and Disaster Management Task Force for the Jamaica National Development Plan “Vision 2030”. She has been a Director of four companies/foundations, including the Luis Fred Kennedy Foundation and the Grace Kennedy Foundation.