Change in flight path leads Roberts Risden to honourable public service

When Colette Roberts Risden, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, saw her name in print yesterday among the list of National Honours recipients 2023, she became even happier that her youthful dream of becoming a pilot did not work out.

Her vision began fading when she was a teenager, resulting in her scoring jobs, over the years, in the public service instead.

“When I thought of my career, I thought I was going to be a pilot!” Roberts Risden told The Gleaner before bursting into laughter on Sunday.

“When I was younger, a teenager, that was my career dream. But then I always did well at geography without trying and back in those days, I realised that by the time I reached 18 [years of age] I needed glasses, and in those days, you needed 20/20 vision without glasses, and, being a female, in those days it was also very hard for women to get into that career from Jamaica,” she explained.

With that reality, she resolved to pursue a career in the area of geography, but eventually ended up where fate would have her, as a public servant.

On Sunday, Roberts Risden was named among the 125 Jamaicans whom Governor General Sir Patrick Allen will present with their awards on Heroes Day in October.

She told The Gleaner she was happy to know that her country, Jamaica, is recognising her for the work that she has done and the contributions she has made, especially in the area of social security.

“Which is where I know that I’ve made my greatest contribution to Jamaica,” said Roberts Risden, who has been working with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security for almost 20 years.

Her career in government service began 27 years ago, when she started serving as a cartographer at the Statistical Institute of Jamaica.

She then went to The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona where she did her master’s degree in development studies with special emphasis on social development and research.

After graduating, she joined the Management Institute for National Development (MIND) for three years before joining the Ministry of Labour and Social Security on January 1, 2000 and started a job as director of public assistance.

As the director of public assistance, she helped to develop and implement Jamaica’s Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education in 2001. She later joined the Office of the Prime Minister on January 1, 2011 and spent four years there before returning to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security on January 1, 2015 and taking office as the permanent secretary.

In the next five years, if she remains with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, she wants to continue assisting with spearheading programmes that transform the lives of Jamaicans.

“If I’m still there, [I want] significant improvement in customer service,” she said.

She is excited that, under her leadership, there was the recent expansion of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security with branches being established outside of the Corporate Area in Hanover and St Ann and refurbishing at their Corporate Area offices in Kingston at North Street, Heroes Circle and St James.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com