DorothyEbanks-Rowe

Dorothy Ebanks-Rowe saw a vacancy in the newspaper and applied for it. The rest is history.

Mrs. Rowe became the first female bus driver for the Jamaica Omnibus Service in 1969. The advertisement never specified a gender and she needed the job. At the time, she was separated from her husband and had four young children to support, so she jumped at the chance.

No stranger to driving large vehicles, Mrs. Rowe, who got her driver's licence at age eight while living in England, drove a minibus and delivered goods when she returned to live in Jamaica. However, the bus would be the largest vehicle she had driven yet. But, Mrs. Rowe had no reservations.

When she was called for the interview she was among a sea of male applicants. The entire office stopped working to take a look at this female bus driver. She aced the interview and test. Initially, friends and co-workers did not like it but they soon grew accustomed to the idea.

Children would gather around her, watching with fascination while she drove. Passengers would crowd the bus to see this new phenomenon but she was never uncomfortable. With better road conditions, she traversed routes like Maxfield Avenue, Barbican and Pembroke Hall. The strict bus schedules meant the buses were dependable and traffic less as many parked their cars and took the bus.

She remained with the company for six years and later drove a taxi. Today, Rowe, 70, delivers goods two days per week for companies and would have no reservations attempting to drive a Jamaica Urban Transit Company articulated bus.

Leonie Forbes

Leonie Forbes, a.k.a. 'Ms. Lee', is known as Jamaica's First Lady of Theatre and Film.

Ms. Forbes studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London England, acted in several films and has appeared in pantomimes put on by the LTM National Pantomime. She has graced the silver screen in major Hollywood movies and is fondly remembered for her smooth and silky voiceas a radio broadcaster and TV hostess.

Her list of stage productions includes Old Story Time, Arawak Gold, Champagne and Sky Juice, Whiplash, The Rope and the Cross, and Smile Orange. Her film and television credits include Shattered Image, Milk and Honey, Going to Extremes, The Orchid House, Passion and Paradise, Club Paradise, and Children of Babylon.

Muna Heaven

Unless you went to school in Manchester, more than likely you wouldn't have heard about Muna Heaven until she became a contestant on the highly-acclaimed NBC television reality series, The Apprentice.

Donald Trump's reality show has Muna pitting her business skills against other young professionals. But her excellence goes far beyond the show. Muna, who attended the Belair School in cool Mandeville, earned an academic scholarship to attend Pennsylvania State University, where she received a B.A. in French and a B.Sc. in biology, while minoring in international studies. She focused on international trade law at the Faculty of Law at McGill University, Canada, and earned degrees in both common and civil law.

She likes world travel and has studied in France, Spain and Belgium. She is fluent in English, Spanish and French and is an accomplished equestrienne who has competed internationally in showjumping in Jamaica, Panama, Guatemala, France and Canada.

She currently works for a New York agency that litigates family-law matters.

Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer

Lorna Goodison

Reading books was her pastime and writing books would become her passion. But no one would think that poet Lorna Goodison once hid her writing.

Goodison, the author of eight books of poetry and two collections of short stories, was apprehensive about her writing when she was ateenager attending St. Hugh's High School. She often published her work anonymously in The Gleaner. It was not until in her 20s she began publishing under her own name in the Jamaica Journal and reading her work publicly, according to the International Voices from the Gaps: Women Artists and Writers of Colour website.

Goodison studied painting at the Jamaica School of Art and then at the School of the Art Students' League in New York. She has painted a number of covers for her books and displayed other work internationally. She taught as a visiting fellow at the University of Michigan in 1992, Radcliffe University in 1991, and in Canada at the University of Toronto in 1991.

Goodison received recognition for her contribution to literature when she was awarded the Musgrave Gold Medal by the Institute of Jamaica in 1999.

At present she teaches at the University of Michigan and spends her time in Ann Arbor and Toronto.

Her most recent book is From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her People.