Jamaican judge Marlene Malahoo Forte has been selected as one of only 18 persons worldwide to participate in the Yale World Fellows Programme at the top-rated Yale University in the United States, the US Embassy in Kingston announced.

Judge Malahoo Forte was selected from “an exceptionally qualified and competitive group of 500 emerging leaders from over 100 countries”, the embassy said in a press statement at the weekend.

The participants in the programme will spend four months at Yale, where they will explore critical world issues, sharpen skills and build relationships with other leaders, the embassy said.

It said World Fellows were selected at early-to mid-career point and came from a range of fields including business, government, media, international organisations, the military, religious organisations, and the arts. They “are uniformly of star quality with established records of accomplishment and upward trajectory”. In her submitting her nomination, the embassy said, Judge Malahoo Forte exhibited “a quiet determination and an unshakable confidence in Jamaica”.

“To that end, she has embarked on a life of public service and the Yale Fellowship should only enhance her leadership capability and capacity to contribute to Jamaica.”

Malahoo Forte is a judge at the Corporate Area Civil Courts in Kingston and a lecturer in Criminal Practice and Procedure at the Norman Manley Law School, Mona Campus, Jamaica. She is a Commonwealth Scholar who holds a Master of Laws Degree, with merit, from the University of London, King’s College; a Bachelor of Laws Degree with honours, from the University of the West Indies, Barbados and a Certificate of Legal Education from the Norman Manley Law School.

She is a former headgirl of Manning’s School in Savanna-La-Mar, Westmoreland. Before taking up her judicial appointment in February 2001, she was an assistant director of Public Prosecution, with a success rate of over 98% at both the trial and appellate levels, the embassy said.