Sheila Dorothy King

Last updated
Sheila Dorothy King
Born1932 (age 9091)
NationalityJamaican
Other namesDorothy King, Dorothy King Wynter, Sheila Dorothy King-Wynter
Occupation(s)physician, academic
Years active1959–2001
Known forFirst woman to become a full professor in the Medical Faculty at the University of the West Indies

Sheila Dorothy King, CD (born 1932) was a Barbadian-born, Jamaican academic and physician. She was the second woman to be appointed as full professor at the University of the West Indies (UWI). She was the first woman appointed as a professor in the Faculty of Medicine in 1983, ten years after she was appointed as head of UWI's Microbiology Department. A specialist in infectious disease and viral epidemiology, she advised numerous national, regional and international departments and governmental agencies on such diseases as dengue, influenza, and typhoid. In 1998, she was honored as a Commander of the Order of Distinction.

Contents

Early life

Sheila Dorothy King, known as Dorothy, [1] was born in 1932, in Barbados to Henrietta Adina (née Stuart) and Alfred T. King. [2] [3] She grew up in Barbados and completed her secondary education at Queen's College in Bridgetown, before enrolling in medical school at the University College of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica. [3] In 1958, King graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery [4] [5] and on the day of her graduation became engaged to fellow medical student, Hugh Hastings Wynter. The two were assigned to complete their internship at the University College Hospital in the obstetrics and gynecology department. On 28 December 1959, at the chapel on the UWI campus, King and Wynter married. [1]

Career

Over the next four years, King worked in various rotations including as Casualty Officer, House Officer in Medicine, House Officer of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Senior House Officer in Paediatrics at the University College Hospital, and she had two sons, Shaun and David. [1] [5] In 1961, she was appointed as an assistant Lecturer in the Department of Microbiology at UWI. [5] That same year, leaving her children in Jamaica with their grandparents, [1] King relocated to England and enrolled in post-graduate studies at the University of London. She graduated with her Postgraduate Diploma in bacteriology in 1964 and went on to earn her Membership in the Royal College of Pathology at the University of London, [5] before returning home to resume her post at UWI. [1]

Besides her teaching, King conducted research on viral diseases. In 1968, she was involved in a vaccine study to inoculate Jamaican school children at risk for the rubella virus with a weakened strain of live virus. [6] In 1970, King was granted tenure and three years later she was made Head of the Department of Microbiology. Simultaneously, in 1973, she began working as the supervisor for the Ministry of Health's Typhoid Carrier Surveillance Programme. The following year she was appointed to the advisory board of the Trinidad Virus Laboratory and became an advisor to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)'s Committee on Dengue in the Americas. [5] In 1977, a dengue epidemic swept through Jamaica, soon spreading throughout the Caribbean and to the American mainland. [7] King and Dr. Esmie Rose, who headed the Virology Department directed the investigation to identify the virus and develop a plan to control the virus. Their findings were presented at a conference held in Montego Bay 8–11 May 1978. [8]

King also made studies of the rotavirus and the role they played in the development of gastroenteritis, [9] typhoid, meningitis, and Hepatitis B and was a prolific publisher and presenter at international conferences on regional infectious disease. [5] [10] From 1981, had additional responsibilities as Director of the Jamaican Influenza Center for the WHO and on the advisory board for the Caribbean Epidemiological Center (CAREC). [5] [2] In 1983, after a decade heading the Department of Microbiology, and earning her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of London, King was made a full professor. The appointment was only the second full professorship ever granted to a woman in UWI's history and was the first time a woman had been elevated to the position in the faculty of medicine. [5] [11] To recognize her achievement, King was awarded the Medal of Appreciation by the Prime Minister that same year. [2] [3] In 1998, she was honored by the government of Jamaica as a Commander in the Order of Distinction [12] and that same year conducted research into a virulent strain of the influenza virus which was prevalent on the island. [13] King retired from UWI in 2001. [14]

Selected works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of the West Indies</span> International university in the Caribbean

The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 18 English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos Islands. Each country is either a member of the Commonwealth of Nations or a British Overseas Territory. The aim of the university is to help "unlock the potential for economic and cultural growth" in the West Indies, thus allowing improved regional autonomy. The university was originally instituted as an independent external college of the University of London.

Mona is a neighbourhood in southeastern Saint Andrew Parish, approximately eight kilometres from Kingston, Jamaica. A former sugarcane plantation, it is the site of a reservoir serving the city of Kingston and the main campus of the University of the West Indies.

Ralston Milton "Rex" Nettleford OM FIJ OCC was a Jamaican scholar, social critic, choreographer, and Vice-Chancellor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), the leading research university in the Commonwealth Caribbean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Order of Distinction</span> National order in the Jamaican honours system

The Order of Distinction is a national order in the Jamaican honours system. It is the sixth in order of precedence of the Orders of Societies of Honour, which were instituted by an Act of Parliament in 1968. The motto of the Order is "Distinction Through Service".

Carolyn Cooper CD is a Jamaican author, essayist and literary scholar. She is a former professor of Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. From 1975 to 1980, she was an assistant professor at Atlantic Union College in South Lancaster, Massachusetts. In 1980, she was appointed as a lecturer in the Department of Literatures in English at the University of the West Indies (UWI), where she continued to work until her retirement as a professor in 2017. Also a newspaper journalist, Cooper writes a weekly column for the Sunday Gleaner.

Kimberly-Ann Robinson-Walcott is a Jamaican poet and editor. She has been the editor-in-chief of the Jamaica Journal since 2004 and editor-in-chief of the Caribbean Quarterly since 2010. Robinson-Walcott is the author of a study of the white Jamaican novelist Anthony Winkler, called Out of Order! (2006).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Fenton</span> British epidemiologist

Professor Kevin Andrew Fenton, is a Public Health Physician and Infectious Disease Epidemiologist. He is the London Regional Director at Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, Regional Public Health Director at NHS London and the Statutory Health Advisor to the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. He is the current President of the United Kingdom Faculty of Public Health and holds Honourable Professorships with the University College London and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

May FarquharsonOJ was a Jamaican social worker, birth control advocate, philanthropist and reformer. She was a founder of the Jamaican Family Planning League and Mother's Welfare Clinic, as well as the driving force behind the Old Age Pension program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elsie Payne</span>

Dame Elsie Payne was a teacher and following independence she became the first Barbadian-born principal of Queen's College in Bridgetown. She was the first woman knighted in Barbados for her long dedication to education and the nation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gwendolyn Spencer</span>

Gwendolyn Spencer, OD was a nurse and midwife, who co-founded the Jamaican Midwives' Association. An advocate for professionalism, she was instrumental in developing training programs for midwives and establishing a professional pay grade from the government for their services. She received the Order of Distinction for her contributions to healthcare in the country.

Evelyn O'Callaghan is a Jamaican academic who is a professor of West Indian literature at the University of the West Indies. She was the first Jamaican woman to win a Rhodes Scholarship.

Elsa Ann Leo-Rhynie OJ is a retired Jamaican academic and university administrator who is a professor emerita of the University of West Indies (UWI). She is a former principal and pro-vice-chancellor of its Mona, Jamaica, campus.

Daphne Rowena Douglas CD is a Jamaican retired librarian. She was the first Jamaican woman to become a professor at the University of the West Indies, where she was head of the Department of the Library Studies, and later served as chairman of the National Library of Jamaica from 1997 to 2011.

Barbara Joy Gloudon OD, OJ, IOJ was a Jamaican writer. She received two Seprod Awards from the Press Association of Jamaica and Order of Distinction. Gloudon was a scriptwriter for Jamaica's Little Theatre Movement (LTM) and wrote radio drama. She hosted a radio talk show for thirty years and became chair of the LTM. She was granted the Order of Jamaica in 1992 and became a fellow of the Institute of Jamaica in 2012.

Bridget Jones was a British literary academic who pioneered the inclusion of Caribbean literature in European university studies programs. While teaching French literature at the University of the West Indies, Jones developed an interest in French Caribbean writing and developed one of the first PhD curricula focused on francophone Caribbean literature. Upon returning to England, she taught at the University of Reading and the Roehampton Institute. An annual award, distributed by the Society for Caribbean Studies, as well as a scholarship program, given by the University of the West Indies, are named in her honour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hazel Monteith</span> Jamaican senator, radio personality and social worker

Hazel Conupe Monteith, O.D., J.P. was an Afro-Jamaican consumer rights advocate, radio personality and social worker. Graduating from the first course in social work offered by the University of the West Indies, Monteith worked for twelve years as a traveling field agent coordinating social welfare projects for the Jamaica Federation of Women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edris Allan</span>

Edris Elaine, Lady Allan was a Jamaican community worker, political figure and women's rights advocate. From childhood, she performed community service and worked as a clerk in several retail establishments prior to her marriage. She was the first telephone operator for the Jamaica All Island Telephone Service. As the wife of Sir Harold Allan, honored with the first knighthood bestowed on a Jamaican of African descent by the British crown, she became an instant celebrity, traveling often with her husband and serving as his secretary. A founding member of the Jamaica Federation of Women (JFW), she held many offices in the organization including serving as chair from 1959 to 1962 and again from 1971 to 1976, and then president from 1976 until her death in 1995.

Maureen Warner-Lewis is a Trinidadian and Tobagonian academic whose career focused on the linguistic heritage and unique cultural traditions of the African diaspora of the Caribbean. Her area of focus has been to recover the links between African cultures and Caribbean cultures. She has been awarded multiple prizes for her works, including two Gordon K. and Sybil Lewis Awards, the Gold Musgrave Medal of the Institute of Jamaica, and was inducted into the Literary Hall of Fame of Tobago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Hart (businessman)</span> Jamaican businessman, philanthropist, and politician (1932–2020)

Anthony Keith Edmund Hart, OJ, CD, was a Jamaican businessman, philanthropist, and politician.

Royal tours of Jamaica by the Jamaican Royal Family have been taking place since the 20th century. Elizabeth II, Queen of Jamaica, visited the island six times; in 1953, 1966, 1975, 1983, 1994, and 2002.

References

Citations

Bibliography