Professor Archibald McDonald will be formally inducted as Principal of The University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona Campus at a  ceremony to take place on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 at 6.00 p.m. in the Graduation Tent on the lawns of the Senate Building.
 
Chancellor of The University of the West Indies, Sir George Alleyne, will preside over the  induction ceremony while other members of the University Administration, including the Vice Chancellor and  Principals of The UWI’s  other campuses in Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and the Open Campus (UWI’s virtual campus) will be in attendance.Representatives of the Government, the diplomatic corps, private and public sectors as well as Members of the university community are also expected to attend the ceremony.  
 
Professor McDonald succeeds Professor Gordon Shirley who has been seconded to the Port Authority of Jamaica as the President and CEO.
 
Archibald McDonald served  Deputy Principal of Mona, and is former Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Mona.   He is a graduate of the UWI and received his postgraduate DM degree in 1987.  He has had an outstanding career as a surgeon in Trauma and Emergency Medicine.  He is credited with starting the first Accident and Emergency Department in Jamaica at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI).  With colleagues, he established the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) Programme in Jamaica and conducted seminal studies that defined the epidemiology of injury in Jamaica which led to development of Jamaica’s Injury Surveillance System.  He has published some 125 papers and abstracts in peer-reviewed journals.
 
As Dean, he led historic changes in the Faculty resulting in a complete restructuring of the MBBS curriculum, a 200% expansion in student intake, accreditation of the medical programme by the Caribbean Accreditation Authority in Medicine and the Health Professions (CAAM-HP) and the effort to create a state of the art building on the Mona Campus – the Faculty of Medical Sciences Teaching and Research Complex.  For his exceptional leadership and scholarship, he was awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in 2008.
 
 The impact of Professor McDonald’s work in trauma, Hospital Emergency Services, University Administration and Medical Education has been felt throughout the Jamaican Community and the wider Caribbean. He was awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in the category, Outstanding Service to the University Community in 2008.