About the Vice Chancellor, Xi
Paloma Mohamed is a Ph.D and full Professor of behavior and communications at the University of Guyana. She is also an adjunct Professor of Cultural Diplomatics at Trent University . She is currently the eleventh Vice Chancellor and first woman to lead the University in its 60 year history. She is also the first women Vice Chancellor to be appointed in the Anglophone-Caribbean. Before becoming Vice Chancellor, Prof Mohamed led the University of Guyana’s Transitional Management Committee as its 2nd Chair from Aug 2019. She has been Deputy Vice Chancellor, Philanthropy, Alumni and Civic Engagement known as PACE, a department which she founded and built over the last 4 years.
Prof Mohamed returned to Guyana in 2007 to help resuscitate the failing Centre for Communication Studies and despite her extensive international footprint has remained with UG becoming Director of the Centre for Communication Studies, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Deputy Vice Chancellor and Chair of the TMC. In committing to UG’s becoming a top ranking University, she has functioned as a world class academic, researcher, beloved and inspirational teacher as well as a dedicated and courageous servant leader.
As an academic Prof. Mohamed has studied at the University of Guyana, The University of the West Indies, Harvard University (HIES) and CAMH in Canada. Her area of focus is on strategy and change and she is a specialist in human behavior and human communications. She supervised scores of graduate research theses, produced over 20 Ph.Ds, produced and co-produced over 22 films and documentaries. She has also written and edited 11 books and several academic journal papers including the noteworthy book “Communication, Power and Change in the Caribbean”. She has served on pro bono on several local and international boards including CXC and UNESCO to name a few and has also served in a technical advisory capacity to various governments and international organizations as a communications strategist and change specialist. She currently serves on CXC’s governing Council, its Finance Committee and on several high level Caricom Committees such as COSOH and CREE.
She has worked on several multi-million dollar multi-university research projects and has been highly successful in raising over US$45 million over the last 8 years, having developed specialties in dealing with Energy issues, negotiating large financial projects and collaborating with multi-national organizations. She has worked internationally for UG with alumni and friends supporting the creation of 4 international alumni chapters as well as the internationally based University of Guyana Foundation.
Paloma Mohamed was awarded a Presidential Medal of Service in 2012 and the City of New York Award for Culture in 2013. She became the first woman Caribbean Laureate for Excellence in Arts and Letters in 2015 and was again recognized with a National Arrow of Achievement in May 2015. In 2014 she was named one of Guyana’s top 5 most influential women.
Prof. Paloma has collaborated and led an amazing team of the University’s top administrators through one of the most delicate and turbulent periods in its recent history under her steady visionary and people sensitive leadership. She has taught and still occasionally teaches Communication, Health behavior, psychology and research, academic and ethics. She has been a visionary and driving force behind the University’s rapid innovations during Covid19 and for their BluePrint 2040 – which is set to leapfrog the University into a future driven knowledge for citizen success dynamo. The short period of her tenure has seen the University change rapidly and significantly from being a fully face to face University to a blended one, regaining accreditation and registration in some areas and rising in world ranking 200 places, being named # 5 in the world for places to study climate and the environment, growing our student numbers, increasing the number of pedigreed Faculty while balancing our budgets , and boosting our policy and research capacity three-hundred fold with the addition of 4 new research institutes in Energy, Green Economics, Resilience and Strategic Security as well as Food and Nutrition Security, headed by funded research chairs.
Prof Paloma has become a sought after Futurist thinker adding to the growing conversation on the future of higher education, work and humanity.