Thursday, April 13, 2000

WILMINGTON, NC -- Jeanette Hyde, former U.S. ambassador to seven Eastern Caribbean nations, will be among the panelists for the discussion "Caribbean Opportunities and Challenges at the Dawn of the 21st Century" at 7:30 p.m., Monday, April 24, in UNCW's Morton Hall, Bryan Auditorium.

In addition to Hyde, who was ambassador to Barbados, Dominica, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Antigua, Grenada and St. Kitts-Nevis from 1994 to 1998, the panel will include Sir Courtney N. Blackman, current ambassador for Barbados to the United States, and Clifford E. Griffin, associate professor of political science and public administration and director of the Master of International Studies Program at North Carolina State University.

Hyde, a North Carolina native, is a prominent businessperson involved in numerous retail, commercial real estate development and private investments. In 1987, she and business associates founded Triangle Bank and Trust of Raleigh. In addition to serving on Triangle's board of directors, Hyde served on the N.C. International Trade Commission, the N.C. Board of Transportation and the N.C. Global TransPark Authority. She has received numerous awards recognizing her civic, charitable, educational and political work including distinguished alumni awards from Wake Forest University and Delta State University and the Triangle World Affairs Council's Distinguished Citizen for Public Service. In 1996, the U.S. Coast Guard presented her its highest civilian award for public service for her treaty work in the area of drug trafficking interdiction. Hyde is a member of the UNCW Board of Visitors and adviser to the university's International Cabinet.

Blackman has served as Barbados' ambassador to the U.S. since January 1995. He graduated with an honors degree in modern history from the University of West Indies and earned his Ph.D. from New York's Columbia University Graduate School of Business. An authority on central banking in developing countries, Blackman served three terms as founding governor of the Central Bank of Barbados from 1972 to 1987. From 1987 to 1994, he worked as an international business consultant to several governments, central banks and international corporations. He is the author of Central Banking in Theory and Practice in a Small State Perspective.

Griffin, who hails from St. Kitts and Nevis, earned a Ph.D. from the University of Rochester and specializes in development programs and politics in Latin America and the Caribbean. He is the author of Democracy and Neoliberalism in the Developing World: Lessons from the Anglophone Caribbean as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters on the social, economic and political issues affecting the Caribbean.

This panel discussion is part of the "Critical International Perspectives" series sponsored by the UNCW Office of International Programs and the Office of the Chancellor.

For more information, contact Dr. Jim Mc Nab, director of the UNCW Office of International Programs, at 910/962-3859.