Transformational speaker Donaree Muirhead will deliver the keynote address at the inaugural Jamaican Women Pinnacle Awards Gala on Saturday at Hilton Rose Hall Hotel in Montego Bay, St James.

The event, which marks the culmination of International Women’s History Month, will honour 26 extraordinary Jamaican women across various industries for their outstanding contributions to the island and the Diaspora.

Muirhead is founder of M-Powered Interactions, an organisation which seeks to elevate the vulnerable in our society, especially women and girls.

Hailing from the tourism capital of Montego Bay, she is one of the first official youth workers in western Jamaica and was instrumental in the formation of the St James Youth Information Centre.

As a worker with the National Center for Youth Development (NCYD), Muirhead cultivated strong stakeholder relationships to the benefit of the youth and wider St James community. The impact of her work has been far-reaching in the areas of sexual and reproductive health, youth crime prevention and citizen safety and security.

Muirhead is the spark behind the Tambourine Army — a group of firebrand women who organised the biggest and most controversial protest in Jamaica that placed the issues of sexual abuse and domestic violence at front and centre.

She is a director on the board at the Port Security Corps Limited and technical assistant to Minister of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport Daryl Vaz.

Among the women to be honoured at the Pinnacle Awards Gala are: Cathi Levy, artistic director, Little People & Teen Players Club; Jody-Anne Maxwell, attorney-at-law and first non-American winner of the Scripps Howard Spelling Bee; Carole Beckford, sports marketer and educator; Dr Kurdell Espinosa-Campbell, consultant emergency physician; and Janet Silvera, journalist and event planner.

The Jamaican Women Pinnacle Awards Gala promises to be a night of inspiration and recognition, celebrating the indelible impact of women who continue to shape Jamaica’s future.