Dr. Shalkowski, is a graduate of the University of the West Indies – Mona campus. She graduated in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science (Hons) degree in Geology. She then spent the next year working part-time as a lab assistant in the then Department of Geology. Later she spent the next 5 years working in the field of Applied Geology at the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, Jamaica. While there, she held various posts but worked mainly as the island’s mitigation Programme Officer.

In 2003, Anestoria was awarded a scholarship to study in Japan. After a year as a research student, she entered the masters programme. As a masters student, she studied rock alterations, and the measurement of weathering using geochemical and geophysical methods. She completed her studies at Tottori University in 2006, having earned a Masters of Science in Geology and a Master of  School System Sciences. Dr. Shalkowski earned her Phd from Hiroshima University where she studied one aspect of landslides  in Jamaica.

As an emergency management personnel she is trained in areas such Grant writing, Construction in Flood prone zones, Mitigation policy planning, Damage Assessment, Debris Management, Resource Management, Project Management, and Petroleum Storage Tank Management and Regulations. Dr. Shalkowski is also ASTM certified in Phase 1/11 Environmental Site Assessments for Commercial Real Estate. In 2011, she was given a Special Achievement Award from the Florida Governors Hurricane Conference. 

Mr .Corbin is a Programme Officer within the Division of Environmental Policy Implementation (DEPI) based at UNEP's Caribbean Regional Seas Programme (CEP) in Kingston, Jamaica.

He is responsible for the sub-programme for the Assessment and Management of Environmental Pollution (AMEP) and coordinates the development and implementation of national and regional projects and activities for two legally binding regional Agreements.  These are the Protocols on Oil Spills and Land Based Sources of Marine Pollution respectively. These protocols form part of the only regional binding Convention for the Protection and Development of the Wider Caribbean Region – the Cartagena Convention for which the Jamaica-based office is also the Secretariat.

Mr. Corbin has been employed with UNEP and based in Jamaica for the last 8 years, following his recruitment in September 2004. He has worked on several regional projects including GEF funded projects for Pesticide Reduction in Central America (REPCar), Integrating Watersheds and Coastal Area Management in Caribbean SIDS (IWCAM) and most recently the Caribbean Regional Fund for Wastewater Management (CReW).  He also coordinates projects for UNEP in Jamaica dealing with Climate Change and is currently overseeing the EU funded Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction Project for Jamaica being implemented in collaboration with the Planning Institute of Jamaica.     

Mr. Corbin, a Saint Lucian national born in Barbados has over 25 years of experience in the development, implementation and evaluation of environment and sustainable development policies and projects and his substantive professional training is in environmental monitoring and analysis. 

Le-Anne Roper completed her tertiary education at the University of the West Indies, Mona where she gained a Bachelor’s Degree in Pure and Applied Chemistry. She went on to serve as a Conservation Officer at Museums of History and Ethnography, a division of the Institute of Jamaica. Such a position entailed caring for and preserving some of the nations most prized artefacts. This position was held for some three years.

She later went on to pursue a Master of Science degree in Natural Resource and Environmental Management at the Cave Hill campus of the UWI. Whilst the programme covered many areas of environmental management, her specialisation was climate change. Upon completion of this programme, she joined the staff of the Planning Institute of Jamaica as a Sustainable Development Planning Officer in the Sustainable Development and Regional Planning Division. Among the areas of focus are environmental management and climate change. Her tenure in this post is three and a half years and counting. 

Richard Kelly received his first degree in Marine Ecology from the University of the West Indies, Mona and his Masters degree in Marine and Environmental Sciences from the University of Hull in the United Kingdom. He spent 10 years working as a Senior Fisheries Officer at the Ministry of Agriculture. 

He is currently employed to the Planning Institute of Jamaica since December 2005, as the Science and Technology Development Planner. In this capacity he manages the Science & Technology Portfolio of the Institute. His main role is to facilitate the integration of STI imperatives into broad national development planning, as response to changes in the global economy and to Jamaica's need to adapt to these. Additionally he interacts and collaborates extensively with a wide range of key STI related local and international agencies to build capacity in STI.  Two of his areas of focus are energy and waste management.

Mrs. Brown’s involvement with Geospatial technologies spans 20 years. She holds a Diploma in Land Surveying from the University of Technology, an MSc. in Geographic Information Systems for Urban Applications from ITC, the Netherlands and an MSc in Computer Based Management Information Systems from the University of the West Indies (UWI).  She has served in GIS positions at the National Land Agency (NLA) and the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), with particular focus on applications related to health, education, demography and other socio-economic issues. 

Mrs. Brown is also integrally involved in the preparation of socio-economic and environmental assessment reports of natural disasters on the island.  In her current role as GIS Analyst at the PIOJ, Mrs. Brown is, among other things,   responsible for conducting an annual review of the growth and development of GIS in Jamaica, which has been published in the Institutes flagship publication, the Economic and Social Survey Jamaica for the last ten years. 

Mrs. Brown has lectured many short courses in the use of GIS software for the Land Information Council of Jamaica (LICJ) and is currently a part-time lecturer for the GIS in Demography course under the MSc in Demography programme at the UWI, Mona. She also serves on the Land Surveying & Geographic Information Sciences Advisory Committee in the Faculty of the Built Environment, University of Technology, Jamaica.