Meet the Staff
Director
Dr Coreen Jacobs-Chester is an international relations specialist who has the distinction of functioning as an interdisciplinary academic and educator. As the holder of a Bachelor’s degree in Portuguese/linguistics in Brazil, she joined the then Faculty of Arts, now Education and Humanities, at the University of Guyana as an English lecturer. In 2021, Dr Jacobs Chester’s transitioned to the Faculty of Social Sciences within the Department of Government and International Affairs where she now lectures Introduction to Latin American Politics, Issues in Latin American Politics, and Ethics in International Relations among other courses. Her research agenda includes forced migration and its effects on migrants in the receiving countries. This arena became her focus following her completion of an MSc in Global Studies at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. She later obtained a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies from Fiji National University to further cement her scholarly goals.
Research Assistant
Crystal is a talented individual with 11 years’ experience providing administrative support at the University of Guyana in the Faculty of Natural Sciences. Crystal has also conducted research exploring factors that influence employee productivity within public sector organizations highlighting theoretical frameworks that can be used to understand the topic and indicate a positive relationship between employee productivity and leadership, training and development, rewards and punishment systems and organizational culture. She has demonstrated the capacity to function as a team leader in a professional manner while managing aggressive deadlines. Crystal completed her Bachelor of Social Sciences – Marketing in 2020 at the University of Guyana and a Master of Business Administration in 2025 at East London University, UK.
Administrative Assistant
Olivia is a responsive and engaging Human Resources Assistant skilled in supporting employees and managers with diverse HR needs for several years including 9 years at the University of Guyana providing exceptional support to senior staff members and handling complex clerical tasks as needed to ensure smooth operations within departments. She is an expert with word processing, database management, HRMIS technology focused on keeping systems updated and facilitating positive employee relations. Olivia has a Bachelor Degree of Social Sciences (International Relations) from the University of Guyana, an Executive Diploma in Human Resources Management from UWI and a Master’s Degree in Disaster Risk Management and Climate Governance from GOAL Guyana.