UCC names Professor Denise Eldemire-Shearer for 2026 Humanitarian Award

The University of the Commonwealth Caribbean (UCC) is set to honour Professor Denise Eldemire-Shearer, OJ, CD, with its Humanitarian Award for her long record in public health, geriatric medicine, and work advancing the rights and welfare of older Jamaicans.

She will receive the award at UCC’s 2026 Commencement Ceremony on Sunday, July 19, 2026, from 9:00 am at the National Arena on Arthur Wint Drive in Kingston. The event will also be carried live online so viewers in Jamaica and overseas can join remotely. Organisers have framed the ceremony under the theme “Journey to the Finish: Celebrating Success, Inspiring Futures.”

Across more than 40 years, Professor Eldemire-Shearer has influenced how Jamaica responds to population ageing through research, teaching, advocacy, and the building of national policies and programmes. From 1982 onward, she has pressed for older adults to remain active in family, community, and national life.

She holds the post of Professor of Public Health and Ageing at The University of the West Indies and serves as Executive Director of the Mona Ageing and Wellness Centre. At the Centre she has directed and backed teaching, research, and advocacy on issues facing older persons, among them health and social conditions, financial security, dementia, and sexual health.

She is also Patron of the National Council for Senior Citizens, the Government of Jamaica’s advisory body on elderly affairs. In that role and across her career, she has backed policies and programmes meant to uphold dignity, independence, and social inclusion for seniors.

UCC President Professor Colin Gyles, commenting on her advocacy, said, “Professor Eldemire-Shearer has devoted her professional life to ensuring that older persons are recognised, respected and supported as valuable members of our society. Her scholarship has informed public policy, while her advocacy has given a powerful voice to a population whose needs can too easily be overlooked.” Ahead of the ceremony he added, “UCC is honoured to recognise her exceptional record of service with the 2026 Humanitarian Award.”

Her work in tertiary education has reached beyond public health and ageing. She earlier held leadership posts in Graduate Studies and Research at The University of the West Indies, helping with student and staff development, graduate supervision, scholarship and bursary support, and efforts to lift the graduate student experience.

On the award, she said, “When I received the letter, I was initially very surprised. As the reality of the recognition sank in, I felt both honoured and humbled that my contributions and activities had been considered worthy of such an honour. I am deeply grateful to the UCC for this recognition, which I accept with sincere appreciation. It is both a privilege and an encouragement to continue serving with dedication and commitment.”

The UCC Humanitarian Award is given to people whose efforts have brought lasting, tangible gains in others’ lives. Professor Eldemire-Shearer’s selection marks a career spent on healthcare, geriatric medicine, evidence-based policy, and advocacy that serves older persons and the wider Jamaican public.

UCC’s Commencement remains the institution’s biggest yearly academic gathering, drawing faculty, staff, families, alumni, national leaders, distinguished guests, and members of the diaspora, both on site and online. For the first time, more than 1,000 graduands from undergraduate and graduate programmes will take part as the university marks academic achievement, leadership, and service.