Earlier this month, Jamaican-born Angella Reid was appointed the first female White House chief usher. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the most powerful individual in the world – the President of the United States.
52 year old Reid, was born in Trinityville, St. Thomas, and attended the Excelsior High School in Kingston, before she became a front office trainee at the Half Moon hotel in Montego Bay in 1978.
Her previous job was a general manager of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Arlington, Virginia, but as the President’s Executive Residence and Chief usher, she will be responsible for executive residence activities, as well as operations on the executive residence grounds. Reid will liaise with the White House Historical Association, the Committee for the Preservation of the White House, the US Commission on Fine Arts and other entities to preserve the People’s House.
The Chief usher is said to be a ‘quaint’ title for a very demanding position. Reid will oversee day-to-day operations at the president’s home, a 132-room mansion with a staff of more than 90 people ranging from plumbers and electricians to butlers and cooks. She’ll cater to everyone from A-list guests at state dinners to throngs of kids at the annual Easter egg roll.
Kudos to this Jamaican go-getter.
Dr. Marcia Roye, Senior Lecturer in Biotechnology at The University of the West Indies, was announced earlier this year as one of a group of just 20 women to receive the L’Oreal-UNESCO International Fellowship Grant. She is also the first Jamaican to have received the L’Oreal-UNESCO International Fellowship (in 2000), and among an exclusive group of approximately 1,100 female scientists from 103 countries worldwide to have been distinguished by Awards or supported in the pursuit of their career through the L’OREAL-UNESCO Women in Science partnership.