Syringa Marshall-Burnett

Syringa Marshall-Burnett CD, JP (11 May 1935 – 10 October 2014) was a Jamaican nurse, educator, and former politician with the People's National Party. A leader in the effort to create a university-based nursing education program, Marshall-Burnett would go on to serve as the head of the nursing education program at the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies. She was the 8th President of the Senate of Jamaica, serving from 1995 through 2007.

Early life and nursing career

Syringa Marshall-Burnett was born in 1935 in Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica. Marshall-Burnett had a desire to go into nursing from a young age, and applied to the training program at Kingston Public Hospital when she was 14. At the time, this entailed three years of on-site training in a hospital and half a year of training as a midwife. She was a member of the World Health Organization's Expert Committee on Nursing, and served on the advisory boards of the American Journal of Nursing and the Journal of Advanced Nursing. She died on 10 October 2014.

Honours In reconnection of her contributions to the field of nursing, Syringa Marshall-Burnett was awarded the Order of Distinction (Commander Class) in 1990, and was appointed a Justice of the Peace. An academic center at the University of the West Indies, the Syringa Marshall-Burnett World Health Collaborating Centre for Nursing and Midwifery Education, was named in her honour.