Dr Kris Rampersad

Dr Kris Rampersad is an award-winning journalist and change agent, multimedia innovator, independent global thought-leader, multilateral relations specialist, development policy influencer, educator, facilitator and consultant. Dr Kris Rampersad straddles spheres of media, culture, gender and education to integrate sustainable approaches to positively impact developmental challenges of the Caribbean and Latin America, Small Island States, Developing World and the Global South. With a PhD in global Literatures in English, she is a Commonwealth Professional Fellow (Association of Commonwealth Universities/Commonwealth Foundation), Nuffield Foundation Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge, ITEC scholar and Rajasthan Patrika awardee of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, and Fellow of the Foreign Press Centre of Japan. Dr Kris Rampersad's innovations in the arena of new media include development of the world's newest creative genre, the MultiMedia MicroEpic during the existential Pandemic panic and piloted to the Commonwealth Scholars Forum. She developed innovative offsprings to this as CEIBA-EDUtainment, a blended medium aimed at bridging gaps between representation of tradition and technologies in formal to non-formal education, entertainment, outreach and communications. Most recently her conceptualisation of AuthenThink Intel and AI AnalyEthics aim to remove the hype, hyperbole and hysteria over artificial intelligence (AI) and centre the value of AI within the long tradition of human knowledge streams. These stem from her early strides to bridge entrenched silos within knowledge systems that divide and make distinctions among agents of education, communication and socialisation by setting up hierarchy of distinctions between formal and non-formal mechanisms for media as conventional - print and electronic, TV/Radio, traditional media rooted in aural and oral culture and techno-based new media and data science. Dr Kris Rampersad was instrumental in shaping and building the field of communications for development, embracing new media as a counterpoint to conventional journalism and formal education by bridging the two and stepping into the new media environment with her blog, Demokrissy. This was named a pioneer winner in development policy blogging for new media by the Communications Initiative of development partners, DIFD, UNESCO, BBC Trust at the turn of the millennium. In the arena of multilateral relations, Dr Kris Rampersad, the first sitting journalist of the region to complete a PhD, conceptualised and piloted the Women Agents of Change initiative for the Commonwealth Caribbean which is now adopted by the UN global community. As Vice President of the UNESCO Executive Board Programme and External Relations Commission, unchallenged for four consecutive terms, she piloted the notion of revising the designation and acronym of small island developing states (SIDS) to Big Ocean Sustainable States (BOSS). She also successfully challenged and motivated the UNESCO Executive Board to unanimously adopt a resolution to revise the developed/developing world classifications and notions of low, middle and high income categories that are inimical to advancement of smaller nations. She further tabled communications as a core competent within UNESCO’s global strategies and action plans for World Heritage and Intangible Cultural Heritage, having served as an independent member and Vice President of the Consultative Body to UNESCO InterGovernmental Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage. Her web platform, the GloCaL Knowledge Pot features her developing multimedia expositions, novel creations that blend education and entertainment for all ages and sectors from pre-school to policy-making. Dr Rampersad is a National Geographic Educator, UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Facilitator, Global Woman Techmakers’ Ambassador, Google Digital Skills Ambassador and Small Island Innovators’ Ambassador. Internationally, she has served variously as President of the UNESCO Education Commission, Vice President of UNESCO Programme and External Relations Commission, Vice President and Independent Member of the Consultative Body to the InterGovernmental Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage and Vice President of the Commonwealth Journalists’ Association. More at https://krisrampersad.com/explore-our-world/who-we-are/dr-kris-rampersad-connecting-glocal-cultures/