Hazel Simmons-McDonald is the Pro-Vice Chancellor and Principal of the University of the West Indies Open Campus, a post which she has held from August 1, 2007. Prior to that, she served as Head of the Department of Language, Linguistics and Literature, Deputy Dean of Outreach, Deputy Dean – Planning and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education at the Cave Hill Campus. She is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Cave Hill Campus of the University in Barbados. At present she is based at the Open Campus offices at Cave Hill but she travels widely throughout the region to enable the establishment and implementation of Open Campus services, particularly in the UWI 12 countries. Professor Simmons-McDonald continued to teach in the Applied Linguistics graduate programme until the end May 2008, and she continues to supervise students pursuing higher degrees in the field.
Her research interests include second language acquisition, the development of literacy by Creole and Creole Influenced Vernacular speakers and vernacular literacy within the formal context. She recently completed a literacy survey of students in Grades K – VI in selected primary schools in the Windward Islands and Barbados, the results of which have been prepared for presentation in technical reports to the relevant governments. She has also compiled the Harmonised Learning Outcomes in the Language Arts for Grades K – VI in primary schools in the OECS and written the Teachers’ Guide which is a companion text to the Outcomes documents. She served for several years as the Secretary-Treasurer of the Society for Caribbean Linguistics, as its Vice President for one year, and completed a two-year stint as President of the Society in August 2008.
Her publications include articles on language acquisition, language education policy, literacy development, and language and culture. She has published several English language texts for use at secondary and tertiary levels and co-edited the volume: Exploring the Boundaries of Caribbean Creole Languages which appeared in 2005. She writes poetry and fiction as a hobby and has published in both genres.
