NORTHERN Caribbean University (NCU) will confer the honorary Doctor of Public Service degree on Audrey Sewell, the recently appointed Cabinet secretary, during the institution’s historic 100th commencement exercise on August 13, 2023.

Sewell will deliver the keynote address at the second of two commencement ceremonies, while United States-based telecommunications entrepreneur Freddie Figgers will address the morning ceremony.

Sewell’s qualifications include an MSc in Human Resource Development and a BSc in Management Studies from The University of the West Indies (The UWI). Additionally, she holds a Certificate in Management Studies from The UWI and an Advanced Certificate in Educational Administration and Leadership awarded jointly by the Swedish Institute for National Development and the Vocational Training and Development Institute.

Sewell’s career as a permanent secretary started in 2008 at the Ministry of Education. In 2011 she was reassigned to the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing, and later — in February 2016 — she was appointed to the same capacity at the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation. In that same year she took on the dual role of permanent secretary for both ministries, serving in the Office of the Prime Minister.

More than 700 graduands from 77 academic programmes offered across the institution’s four colleges and one school are eligible for the conferral of certificates and degrees. The graduation will be held in the gymnatorium on the Mandeville campus of NCU.

NCU president, Professor Lincoln Edwards has described the 2023 graduating class as “prestigious, not only because of the determination that it took to get to where you are today but because this is our 100th graduation ceremony since the institution opened its doors on this hilltop, and you are the ones making up the class”.

The university will also confer the Honorary Doctor of Science degree on Caymanian Shirlene Henriques, who graduated in the first batch of NCU-degreed nurses in 1974 and was later appointed chief executive officer of the Cayman Islands Health Services Authority. Jamaican-born hotelier and businessman Dennis Morgan will also be conferred the Honorary Doctor of Commerce degree. He is also an alumnus of the university.

In the special awards category, senior administrator Georgette Baker will be awarded the 2023 President’s Medallion, while the 2023 Product Sample will be awarded to NCU alumna Dr Melva Spence, who is a counselling psychologist and advocate.