The University of the West Indies, (UWI) Mona is pleased to announce the promotion of Senior Lecturer in the Department of Community Health and Psychiatry, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Dr. Roger Gibson, to the rank of Professor. The promotion comes in the wake of assessment of his academic accomplishments and contribution to his field.
 
Roger Gibson holds the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), from The University of the West Indies, (UWI) Mona, the Masters of Public Health with Distinction from the University of Leeds and the Doctor of Medicine (DM) degree from The UWI, Mona Campus. Dr Gibson joined the staff of The University of the West Indies, Mona in 2004 as a Research Fellow in the Section of Psychiatry, Department of Community Health and Psychiatry. He was promoted to Lecturer in 2006 and Senior Lecturer in 2011. In 2016, he was appointed Head of the Section.
 
Roger Gibson is a skilled academic psychiatrist who has a distinguished record of original work which has impacted Jamaica and the wider Caribbean.  His work has covered an interesting range of themes in psychiatry including stigma, geriatrics, and philosophy. His research has been in areas of Psychiatry, Epidemiology and Population Health, with much of it focused on the prevalence of depression in the West Indian population as well as in certain defined prevalent diseases such as sickle cell and HIV/AIDS.  A major emphasis in this regard has been early recognition and proper management of depression so that the disorder does not unnecessarily affect the quality of life. Dr Gibson has also studied depression across the life spectrum, having assessed its impact on adolescents as well as the elderly. He has also examined the impact of suicide.
 
Commenting on his work, one assessor noted that “[Dr. Gibson’s] publication on depression in the HIV/ADIS population speaks to (his) sense of caring and compassion for helping individuals disadvantaged in our societies due to prejudice and stigma. My impression from reading [his publications] is that Dr. Gibson is a talented researcher and clinician. They are all pedagogically pleasing to read. He seems to investigate interesting ideas to uncover useful knowledge. They reflect a sincere desire to form well defined hypotheses, describe the context and existing literature on the issue, consider various perspectives, present data and analysis in a format that can be easily understood and replicated, discuss critical assumptions, contrary findings and alternative interpretations, discuss conclusions and their implications, and provide adequate references. These qualities are in my opinion the hallmarks of an honest and diligent investigator.”
 
Dr Gibson is co-editor of the book Perspectives in Caribbean Psychology-and has published some 44 peer-reviewed journal articles. He has also co-authored eight peer-reviewed book chapters.
As a teacher, he has made a significant contribution to curriculum and programme development, expanding clinical placements for DM psychiatry residents, coordinated and co-authored a comprehensive common curriculum for all campuses and implemented rotations in Neurology and Primary Care at The UWI, Mona Campus. 
 
In his contribution to the University, Dr Gibson has undertaken several administrative assignments and responsibilities. He serves as Head of the Section of Psychiatry, has acted as Head of the Department of Community Health & Psychiatry and serves as Chair of the Psychiatry Specialty Board. He has served as Coordinator of the Undergraduate Psychiatry Programme, provided clinical supervision and delivered lectures and tutorials to medical students and served as examiner for the Medicine and Therapeutics Examination across the University’s four campuses.
 
His professional and scholarly activities include serving as Academic Editor for the journal Medicine and as an editorial board member for Clinical Medicine Insights: Case Reports. He is also a member of the section on Conflict Management and Resolution for the World Psychiatric Association. The newly appointed professor has also presented papers in a number of large international conferences including the World Congress of Psychiatry in Madrid, Spain and the World Psychiatric Association International Congress in Florence, Italy. His outstanding scholarly work was acknowledged when he received the Principal’s Award for Most Outstanding Book for Perspectives in Caribbean Psychology in 2009. 
 
He has also been successful in forging partnerships to assist in promoting his public health agenda. This was recognized in 2014, when he received the Principal’s Research Award for the Research Project with the Most Multidisciplinary /Cross Faculty Collaboration for Parenting & Depression among Adolescents in Four Caribbean Countries. The publication also received the Principal’s Award for Best Research Publication (Article).