Communications Consultant Marcia Erskine has been elected chairman of the Women's Leadership Initiative (WLI) for 2011-2013.

She succeeds Senator Marlene Malahoo-Forte who recently completed a two-year term as chair of the WLI, a committee of the United Way of Jamaica (UWJ).

Mrs Erskine, managing director of the Kingston-based Caribbean Communications consultancy firm, Marcia Erskine and Associates and a member of the board of governors of the UWJ, is a founding member of the WLI and has served as chair of the communications committee since 2003.

She is also a member of the board of directors of the St Patrick's Foundation and a former president of both the Public Relations Society of Jamaica and the Jamaica and Caribbean chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators.

The WLI was launched in November 2003 by former United States Ambassador to Jamaica Sue McCort Cobb following a series of 'exchanges' between a select group of women in Jamaica and Florida, United States of America, aimed at fostering economic development, knowledge sharing and partnership between the two countries.

The WLI has since accomplished much, including substantial retooling of the Sylvia Foote Basic School and the Mary Issa Clinic at the Voluntary Organisation for the Upliftment of Children in downtown Kingston. The WLI also funds three scholarships to local tertiary institutions.

Mrs Erskine said that her focus as WLI chair is to continue the work of the inaugural chair, Pat Ramsay and her successor, Senator Malahoo Forte, to achieve the mission of the WLI of "building bridges of cooperation in developing, implementing and sustaining projects in health, education and philanthropy, which contribute to the improved well-being of all Jamaicans".

Source: Jamaica Gleaner