Hazel Simmons-McDonald

Hazel Simmons-McDonald is the former Pro-Vice Chancellor and Principal of the University of the West Indies Open Campus. Earlier administrative roles in the Faculty of Humanities and education included Head of Department, Deputy Dean Outreach, Deputy Dean Planning and Dean.  She retired in 2014 and is a UWI Professor Emerita.  Her research interests and publications include articles and book chapters on second language acquisition, vernacular literacy, language education policy, language and culture, open and distance learning and co-edited books on Creole influenced vernaculars in education. She collaborated on writing French Creole instructional texts for native speakers of Antillean French Creole and has also published several English language texts for use at secondary and tertiary levels.  She writes creatively as a hobby and has published poems in journals, including The Malahat Review, The Literary Review, The Atlanta Review, Poui, Pathways, Calabash, BIM and selected anthologies.  Her short fiction has been published in BIM and Poui. Her first collection of poems, Silk Cotton and other trees was published by Ian Randle Press in 2004.