Guest Editor | Christene King, Lady of Class

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and The Gleaner has invited several stakeholders to be Guest Editors of a special edition of the newspaper. They will help bring into sharp focus the impact that this dreaded disease has had on the Jamaican society; the fear and often steely resolve of those who battle this illness; and the policies that determine whether they live or die.

On Monday, October 2, readers will be locked into this special Gleaner publication that these individuals, passionate about cancer awareness, have edited.

Today we feature the second of our Guest Editors - Rowena 'Christene' King, media entrepreneur and breast cancer survivor.

Media entrepreneur Rowena 'Christene' King broke the glass ceiling in journalism decades ago and found the perfect balance between managing the news and the social scene. She has made a successful career in the world of print media for more than 40 years and is one of the country's most respected journalists.

She is currently a facilitator with the JMMB-Joan Duncan Foundation Conversation for Greatness, a transformation project in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, the primary goal of which is to unearth and encourage Jamaicans to tap into their greatness, in order to impact their own lives and, by extension, their communities.

King is a graduate and relationship consultant with the world-renowned Dale Carnegie Training Jamaica franchise. She is also a media consultant and has worked with a number of online publications.

King has also survived breast cancer for the past year.

A co-founder, shareholder and director of the now-defunct Sunday Herald, she was a publisher, managing director and editorial executive of the newspaper.

The Lady of Class, as she is called by many, King conceptualised and produced, 25 years ago, the popular award-winning Pure Class weekly tabloid magazine (formerly known as Class), which she edited and published with the Sunday Herald.

King is currently a director of the Press Association of Jamaica and has served as vice-president of that organisation, as well as being honoured as a veteran journalist.

Juggling her newsroom commitments with her love for fashion was inevitable, and King, a regular on the island's catwalks in the '70s and '80s, was one of Jamaica's earliest beauty, entertainment and fashion journalists. She spent 16 years at The Gleaner, demitting office as editorial manager and joining the Jamaica Record news-paper in 1998.

A founding member of The Jamaica Herald newspaper, she was its associate editor - administration, and served in the capacity of acting editor-in-chief and editor on numerous occasions.

King was also director and grooming instructor for her grooming and modelling school and taught first- and second-formers at St Hugh's High School the basics of grooming and modelling. She also taught at the Francis Keane School of Grooming and Modelling School, which she co-founded, and at the FACES Grooming School, all in Kingston, Jamaica.