The Soroptimist International Club of Jamaica (Kingston) has named Professor Rosalea Hamilton, chief executive officer of the LASCO Chin Foundation and international trade expert, as the 2018 recipient of its Stella Gregory Award.

The award will be presented at the club's 56th Anniversary Charter Luncheon and Stella Gregory Awards Ceremony, to be held at Talk of the Town, The Jamaica Pegasus hotel, New Kingston, on November 24.

Soroptimist International is a global volunteer movement for women in business, management and other professions, who work together to transform the lives of women and girls. The award was inaugurated in 1976 to honour the club's founder, Stella Gregory, who introduced Soroptimist International as the first service club for women in Jamaica. Each year, an award is presented to an outstanding woman who has excelled in her chosen field and has contributed to national development.

Prior to her appointment at the foundation, Professor Hamilton served as vice-president of Community Service & Development at the University of Technology, Jamaica, (UTech, Jamaica). While at that institution, she led the Fi Wi Jamaica Project, a three-year national social intervention initiative, funded by the The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), to expand a window of opportunity for the protection and promotion of human rights of targeted socially excluded and vulnerable Jamaicans, including women and girls. Prior to that, she was named to the UTech, Jamaica /Scotiabank chair in Entrepreneurship and Development, in recognition of her outstanding work in the promotion, development and advocacy of entrepreneurship.

Professor Hamilton is also immediate past president of the MSME Alliance, which seeks to empower the small and medium-sized enterprises by improving their entrepreneurial capacity and their access to financing, while tackling cross-cutting issues such as women and youth in business. She is founder and director of the Institute of Law & Economics and a member of the board of directors for LASCO Manufacturing Limited and the National Integrity Action. She has also worked as a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme, the International Labour Organization and other international organisations.