Marisa Colleen Dalrymple-Philibert became the second woman to serve as speaker of the House of Representatives and the 15th person to hold the post on July 12, 2011.

The first was Violet Nielsen, who served from 1997 to 2003.

Dalrymple-Philibert entered representational politics in 2007 and contested the general election that year, beating the People’s National Party’s Doneth Brown-Reid to take the Trelawny Southern seat.

In July 2011 when then Speaker Delroy Chuck was appointed minister of justice, Dalrymple-Philibert, who had previously served as deputy speaker, was elevated to the speaker’s chair. But her tenure ended after the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) lost the general election in December that year, even as Dalrymple-Philibert successfully contested her seat, repeating the feat in the 2016 and 2020 general elections, both of which were won by the JLP.

In September 2020, following the retirement of Pearnel Charles Sr, she was again asked to serve as speaker and held that post until Thursday, September 21, 2023 when she tendered her resignation, both as speaker and Member of Parliament, with immediate effect.