Press Release 2006

Jamaican Foreign Service Officer to Participate in US International Visitor Program

The United States Embassy in Kingston is pleased to announce that Ms. Deniese Sealey, Foreign Service Officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, has been selected to participate in the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) on United States Foreign Policy. The U.S. State Department IVLP sends up-and-coming leaders from all over the world to the United States each year to meet and confer with their professional counterparts and experience the country and its institutions first-hand.

Ms. Sealey who works in the Department of Bilateral Relations at the Ministry has been in Foreign Service for over ten years. Her responsibilities include providing policy analysis and advice as well as political and economic monitoring of Jamaica’s bilateral relations with specific countries.

According to Ms. Sealey, “the program will provide me with first hand knowledge of US foreign policy, as well as an opportunity to interact with key players in the private and public sectors, who are instrumental in the US foreign policy cycle.” Mr. E. Courtenay Rattray, Director of the Bilateral Relations Department at the Ministry, said that the project will contribute to the strengthening of the department’s capacity in relation to its management of Jamaica/US relations, through structured exposure to US policy formulation and implementation.

From January 25 to February 15, Ms. Sealey and 22 other participants from around the world will travel to Washington D.C.; New York City, New York; Lincoln, Nebraska; Springfield, Illinois; El Paso, Texas and San Francisco, California.

Topics to be covered during the multi-city program include Role of National Government Institutions, Human Rights, Role of Policy and Advocacy Institutions, Citizen Diplomacy, Conflict Resolution and Education, Agriculture, Trade, Cross Border Issues, Immigration and U.S. Foreign Policy and Security Policy Issues.