February 16, 2023
10:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon
Featured Speaker
MELANIE SMITH
Lecturer, Faculty of Management & Social Sciences, University of Belize
Special Guest Speakers
SHEFALIKA GANDHI
Clinician in Student Mental Health, Cornell Medical College, NYC
DIANA LOCKE Director
International Organization of Migration Belize
Upon arrival in Belize in 1978, Mr. Gandhi became a Crown Counsel at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP). In 1982, he was promoted to be the Director of Public Prosecutions, and after four years as DPP, he was appointed as Solicitor General, a position he held for thirteen years. He reached the pinnacle of his career in the late 1990s when he was appointed and served concurrently as Legal Counsel in the Ministry of Finance and as Director-General of the International Financial Services Commission (IFSC).
In keeping with his selflessness, generosity and love for Belize, Mr. Gandhi donated a large portion of his estate to the University of Belize. This donation is to the University’s Endowment Fund and which provides support towards the training of young Belizeans for generations to come.
The University of Belize has been pleased to not only honour this remarkable man with the naming of its FMSS building in Belize City but also, in commemoration of his life, it began hosting an Annual Gian Chand Gandhi Memorial Lecture in 2021.
MELANIE SMITH
Lecturer, Faculty of Management & Social Sciences, University of Belize
Special Presentations
SHEFALIKA GANDHI
Clinician in Student Mental Health, Cornell Medical College, NYC
DIANA LOCKE
Director
International Organization of Migration
Belize
February 16, 2023
10:00 A.M. - 12:00 Noon
DIRECTOR OF CEREMONIES
Carisa Carrillo, Director, Marketing & Communications, UB
INVOCATION
Ian Sangster, Director, Department of Finance, UB
INVOCATION
Dr. Vincent Palacio President, UB
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
Carisa Carrillo
FEATURED PRESENTATION
Melanie Smith
1ST SPECIAL PRESENTATION
Shefalika Gandhi
2ND SPECIAL PRESENTATION
Diana Locke
QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION
Carisa Carrillo
VOTE OF THANKS
Dr. Sherlene Enriquez-Savery
Vice President, UB
Melanie C. Smith is a Full-time Lecturer at the University of Belize, Faculty of Management and Social Sciences for more than a decade. At UB, Melanie lectured in Sociology and Research Methods.
Since 2020, she has been the Lead Instructor of the Certificate in Migration Management Course offered by Galen University and the International Organization for Migration. Melanie earned her Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Havana, Cuba and a Masters from Duquesne University in Pennsylvania. She currently resides in Canada where she is finalizing her PhD in Sociology and specializing in Gender and Development. In Canada, Ms. Smith is a Part-time Instructor at both Dalhousie University and St. Mary’s University in the Sociology, Anthropology and International Development departments.
In Belize, Melanie also worked as a consultant in the areas of Gender, Migration, and International Development. Her research interests center on issues affecting women, particularly their position within the Belizean family and society as well as their participation in the global labor market.
She has carried out several important national research projects for major national and international organizations. Melanie has researched and written a large portion of the current literature on immigration and emigration in Belize. She has presented on these topics at various international conferences such as the Canadian Sociological Association and the Latin American Studies Association. In 2020, she was selected as a Research Fellow and placed at the Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia (ISANS). At ISAN she developed a Research Agenda for the organization as well as Knowledge Mobilization Strategy. Her current research focuses on Transnational Families. Her dissertation is on Transnational Care Strategies of Belize Migrant Women in the United States.
Clinician in Student Mental Health, Cornell Medical College, NYC
Shefalika Gandhi, LCSW is a Clinician in Student Mental Health at Cornell Medical College in NYC. She has expertise in providing multicultural counseling, mindfulness, and leadership skills programming to International students at several university health centers.
Among other academic institutions, she has worked at Princeton University’s Health Services for more than fourteen years. Shefalika has trained in the contemplative sciences and has a passion for mindfulness-based practices, which she delivers extensively to students, faculty, and staff. Her graduate degrees are from Columbia University and New York University.
In May of 2022 Diana Locke was appointed Head of Office – Belize at the International Organization for Migration the UN Agency with responsibility for Migration. IOM is the newest agency in the UN System, working to promote the UN Sustainable Development Goals alongside the objectives of the Global Compact on Migration to ensure safe, orderly, dignified and regular migration. Ms. Locke leads IOM Belize team implementing projects which seeks to build capacities in Government, Private Sector and Stakeholders in the field of migration, promote and encourage data collection and analysis to support decisions making and inform policies; as well as highlight and inform matters affecting migration and climate change, and safe voluntary return and reintegration of migrants.
Prior to joining IOM Ms. Locke served as a Career Public Officer in the Government of Belize for 32 years (1988-2020). She worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 28 years in various capacities, serving in Belize’s Diplomatic Offices in Washington and London, thereafter as an Acting Permanent Secretary and later as Director responsible for Bilateral, Protocol and Consular matters.
In 2016 she assumed responsibilities as Director of Immigration and Nationality Services (2 years) prior to the separation of the Departments, and later (2018) as Director of Border Management and Immigration Services (2 years) prior to retirement.
DIANA LOCKE Director, International Organization of Migration, BelizeShe was also engaged in public sector reform on special assignment from 2003-2006 as the Head the Public Service Reform (PSR) Secretariat for the Public-Sector Reform Council and spear headed reform initiatives in the Public Service key among them the 2004 Management Audit of the Public Service.
Ms. Locke obtained her Master of Science Degree in Management with specializations in International Business and Human Resource Management from St. Thomas University in Florida, where she also obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Management, and she is a graduate of St. Catherine Academy and St. John’s Junior College in Belize. She has had training in diplomacy at the Polytechnic of Central London, UWI Institute of Foreign Relations in Guyana and participated in US International Visitor Programme, Workshops in Management and Control of Emergency Operations, as well as the Commonwealth Executive Program in Public Management for Performance at York University in Canada.
Diana Locke was born in Belize in 1965; she is married and the mother of two children and maintains strong interest in conservation issues and a passion for photography.
