Dr Joyce Robinson - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

Dr Joyce Robinson will receive the Jamaica Committee's Award of Excellence at Pineapple Ball 2008. The annual fund-raising gala takes place at the Ritz-Carlton Golf and Spa Resort, Rose Hall, on October 4. The ball is hosted by the Jamaica Committee, a United States-based not-for-profit corporation and is one of western Jamaica's premier social events.

In announcing Dr Robinson's selection, Jamaica Committee spokesperson Moyra Fitzroy noted, "Dr Robinson has served Jamaica for over 50 years and left her indelible mark of excellence on many educational institutions that we have come to accept as part of Jamaica. The Jamaica Committee is honoured to recognise Dr Robinson's outstanding commitment to improving Jamaica through education."

Service

Dr Robinson served as head of: the Jamaica Library Services; the then called Jamaica Movement for the Advancement of Literacy; the former government-prun Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (the first woman in the English-speaking Caribbean to head a media house) and the Human Employment and Resource Training Programme.

Dr Robinson holds honorary doctor of law degrees from the University of the West Indies and from Dalhousie University in Canada. She is a Member of the British Empire and a recipient of the Order of Jamaica.

The Jamaica Committee directors with the Pineapple Ball 2007 honoree in excellence in the field of medicine, Dr Mercedes Dullum (centre), originally from Montego Bay. Directors Jacky Shepard (left) and Moyra Fitzroy share the moment. - Contributed