Professor Aldrie Henry-Lee is the current Pro Vice-Chancellor, Graduate Studies and Research, The University of the West Indies (The UWI). She was the first female University Director of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES), The UWI. A Sociologist by profession, she has researched and published extensively on social policy issues affecting small island developing states (SIDS).
Since joining the university in 1995, Professor Henry-Lee has researched and published on public policy, poverty, gender, human rights and childhood. She has conducted research for several notable agencies. These include the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Department for International Development (DFID), the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank.
She has also been involved in teaching courses in social policy both at the graduate and the undergraduate levels. Among the courses that she has developed are “Deviance and Conflict and Social Management,” “Social Inequality, Inequity and Marginalization” and “Social Investment in Children.”
For the last 18 years, Professor Henry-Lee has helped organise the annual regional Caribbean Child Research conference which facilitates equal voice to adult and child researchers. In 2015, the conference produced a policy document with recommendations for the then Prime Minister of Jamaica.
Much of Professor Henry-Lee’s research has influenced the public policy process and she has served on several committees and boards including the Advisory Board of the Child Development Agency (now the Child Protection and Family Services Agency), Jamaica. She is currently the Immediate Past President, Kiwanis Club of New Kingston, Jamaica, member of the HEART/NSTA Board and a Sunday School Teacher at Sts. Peter and Paul Church, Kingston, Jamaica.
Professor Henry-Lee is the recipient of several awards. She received the Mona Principal’s Distinguished Researcher Award in 2003. In 2010, she won the prestigious UWI/Guardian Life Premium Teaching Award. In 2017, she led the team that received the award for the Project/Activity with the most developmental impact in the Faculty of Social Sciences. She was also a member of the team which won the award for the Project with the most funds in the Faculty of Social Sciences for the academic year 2017/2018.
In recognition of her outstanding work, in 2020, Professor Aldrie Henry-Lee was selected for a Vice Chancellor’s Award for all-round excellence.