Profile of the Campus Principal

A St. Lucian by birth, Professor Hazel Simmons-McDonald is a Professor of Applied Linguistics and is the first Pro Vice-Chancellor, as well as the first Principal of the Open Campus of the University of the West Indies. .....

Profile of the Open Campus Principal

A St. Lucian by birth, Professor Hazel Simmons-McDonald is a Professor of Applied Linguistics and is the first Pro Vice-Chancellor, as well as the first Principal of the Open Campus of the University of the West Indies.

Professor Simmons-McDonald was a Faculty member at Cave Hill since 1991. She has provided leadership as Deputy Dean (Outreach -1993-1995); as Head of Department (1995-1999); as Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education (2003-2007) at the Cave Hill Campus.

She has considerable experience in and understanding of the educational needs of the Eastern Caribbean countries. Her professional experience began in 1970 in the UWI School of Continuing Studies in St. Lucia as a part-time Instructor of English Language and Literature.

She was also Acting Resident Tutor from 1973-1974 and served at the Mona Campus as Temporary Lecturer from 1977-1979.

Her academic works include Exploring the Boundaries of Caribbean Creole Languages (2005), co-edited with Ian Robertson, Writing in English (1996) and the popular Heinemann Ginn Let's Work with English Series, Books 1-3 and a fourth book for CXC, which adopts an exciting, integrated, task-based approach to teaching English in Caribbean secondary schools.

Professor Simmons-McDonald's main research interests include: Applied Linguistics: Language Acquisition/Learning; Teaching of English in Creole Contexts; Literacy in French Creole.