Joycelin Massiah has for four decades been involved in every aspect of Caribbean society. A Demographer, she received her training at the UWI where she enjoyed an illustrious career, including being the first female Professor appointed in the Faculty of Social Sciences. Her pioneering work on women in the Caribbean has had far-reaching effects on Caribbean scholarship in the field of women and development and on women’s rights activism in the region. She has been the Regional Programme Director of the UNIFEM Caribbean Office for the past ten years. Her dynamic leadership there contributed to a successful outcome for the Caribbean at the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Among her many awards have been the Gold Crown of Merit, the third highest award of Barbados, in 1998 and the sixth CARICOM Triennial Award for Women in 1999.