By Neil Armstrong
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| Photo contributed. Kurt Davis, Jamaica's Consul-General at Toronto |
As Jamaica’s consul-general at Toronto, Kurt Davis has witnessed firsthand the strong volunteerism of members of the Jamaican diaspora in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. On many occasions, he was either delivering greetings in his official role or attending as a supporter of multiple initiatives organized within the community.
It was no surprise then that in 2025, he held the first Jamaican Diaspora Impact Awards (JDIA) to recognize outstanding individuals who have made exceptional contributions to community development, culture, education, health, entrepreneurship, and advocacy.
The JDIA was initiated to honour excellence, celebrate impact, and highlight the invaluable role of the Jamaican community in Canada’s multicultural fabric.
With over 100 nominations from the community, a panel of judges selected five Jamaican-Canadians for the JDIA, with the sixth—the icon awardee—proposed by the consulate and agreed to by the panel.
Verna Andrade, Diana R. Burke, Maureen Henry, Dwayne Winston Holness, and Dionne Sinclair will be presented with JDIA awards, while Trevor Lloyd Massey will be accorded the status of icon at the second annual Jamaican Diaspora Impact Awards Gala on October 23 at the Toronto Botanical Garden in Toronto.
Happening under the theme, “Celebrating Legacy, Leadership and Community Impact,” Davis notes that, “The Jamaican Diaspora Impact Awards are about recognizing people whose leadership, service and commitment have made a meaningful difference over many years.
“The Jamaican diaspora in Canada is filled with extraordinary individuals who continue to strengthen communities while maintaining deep and meaningful connections to Jamaica. The JDIA gives us an opportunity to celebrate their stories, honour their work, and inspire the next generation of community leaders.”
Their stories represent a broad range of diaspora impact, including leadership in
education, healthcare, youth development, culture, entrepreneurship, community service,
mentorship, advocacy and charitable work across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.
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| Photo contributed. Verna Andrade, President of Canadian Friends of St. Thomas Health Care Organization |
Originally from Johnson Mountain in St. Thomas, Jamaica, Andrade has built her life around service, resilience, and a deep commitment to uplifting her community.
Noting that her journey from Jamaica to Canada was one of courage, determination, and perseverance, she migrated to Canada as a domestic worker in 1967 under the West Indian Domestic Scheme, continued her education, and had a respected career in health care, eventually retiring as a registered nurse.
She believes meaningful impact does not always begin on a stage; often, it begins through faithful service, organizations that strengthen community, and personal acts of encouragement, mentorship, and compassion.
“When doing something for others, you don’t have to let everyone know you’re doing it. It’s about the impact that the person you’re doing it for gets and the satisfaction you get. It has nothing to do with media attention.”
The longstanding member of the Jamaican Canadian Association has been the president of the Canadian Friends of St. Thomas Health Care Organization for 16 years. The Toronto-based charitable organization travels to Jamaica annually with eye-care experts and volunteers to address vision care needs in the island.
Andrade shared an anecdote of a girl, who upon receiving a free pair of eyeglasses, told her mother that she could now see clearly and was not dunce at school. She also met a woman who could finally read her bible without asking her grandchildren to do it for her.
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| Photo contributed Diana R. Burke, President of PACE Canada (Project for the Advancement of Childhood Education) |
Burke is a business leader, philanthropist and community advocate whose more than four decades of leadership have been distinguished by an unwavering commitment to improving the lives of Jamaicans and strengthening communities in Jamaica and Canada.
As the president of PACE Canada (Project for the Advancement of Childhood Education), she has devoted decades to improving early childhood education and creating opportunities for some of Jamaica’s youngest and most vulnerable learners.
In 2003, she pioneered a mobile computer-laboratory program that brought computers, trained teachers and basic computer education to more than 5,000 children aged four to six in remote Jamaican communities.
She later led PACE in developing technology-based early childhood education initiatives in partnership with the University of the West Indies, One Laptop Per Child and the Government of Jamaica.
When COVID-19 school closures threatened to widen the educational divide, Burke acquired and distributed 2,500 OneTab educational devices to 500 kindergarten schools across Jamaica, giving young children access to personalized reading, writing and mathematics programs without requiring internet connectivity. Jamaica became the first Caribbean country to deploy these devices.
She has also used her leadership and philanthropic network to support Jamaicans through her work as president and director of the People Bridge Charitable Foundation.
Burke mobilized donors to provide funding to Alpha Boys’ Institute in Kingston for its music and skills-based training programs serving at-risk youth. She has also helped secure support for medical equipment for hospitals in Jamaica.
For her, leadership is ultimately measured not by titles or professional accomplishments, but by the opportunities created for and through others.
“Leadership to me is bringing people together to accomplish a common goal so while I may have ideas of things to do—I want to put a bus with computers in Jamaica—I have to find people who buy into that vision, and then I need people with the skills to make that vision happen,” said Burke who is serving for the third time as president of PACE Canada and noted that the organization has had great boards of directors.
Preparing to celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2027, PACE Canada has plans to host several events throughout the year.
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| Photo contributed Maureen Henry |
Born in Kingston, Henry was raised in a family where the value of giving back
was not only encouraged but expected. This early foundation shaped a lifelong dedication
to service.
She volunteered at a basic school supporting young children between the ages of one and six, and took that passion with her to Ontario in the 1970s supporting her son’s daycare community. Henry further demonstrated her civic commitment by volunteering in political outreach initiatives, encouraging community participation in the democratic process.
Her dedication to community development deepened through her extensive involvement with nonprofit organizations. At Community MicroSkills Development Centre in Rexdale, she served for over 15 years on the board of directors in multiple leadership roles, including secretary, vice chair, and chair of the volunteer committee.
She also contributed to United Way initiatives through the organization. Her efforts helped
countless individuals re-enter the workforce, pursue training, and regain economic independence. Such was her commitment that she later served professionally as an employment and mentorship counsellor until 2019.
Henry returned to school in 2009 to become a community social service worker. During her placement at COSTI in Brampton, she supported internationally trained professionals, helping them navigate settlement challenges and connect with mentorship opportunities, empowering newcomers to successfully integrate into Canadian society.
Earlier this year, the Jamaican Canadian Association recognized Henry for her volunteer work supporting Hurricane Melissa relief initiatives.
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| Photo contributed. Dwayne Winston Holness, Founder and Creative Director of Core Creative Inc. |
Holness, the founder and creative director of Corex Creative Inc., was five years old when his 23-year-old mother, Yvonne Robinson, left Kingston and started over in Canada.
They arrived with nothing and built from the ground up in Jane and Finch, in Toronto's north end.
He created his multimillion-dollar cinematic brand storytelling agency from a side hustle. Corex has produced campaigns and films for several Canadian companies and institutions.
In 2022, Holness made his CBC directorial debut with “Hodan's Story” for CBC Docs Shorts, a portrait of the late Somali Canadian journalist Hodan Nalayeh, a friend and mentor he met at FEVA TV, who was killed in Kismayo in 2019. That same year, he directed “The Blackburn Story” for Historica Canada, on the couple who escaped enslavement in Kentucky and built Toronto's first taxi company.
Holness has been working on a book, “Calculated Steps: Taking Responsibility for the Life You Are Building,” which began as a hashtag he started posting in 2015. He has written nineteen chapters, opening with a letter to his mother, and plans to publish it in 2027.
“The letter represents a reflection and pays homage to my mother and the sacrifices that she made, especially to bring me to Canada and give me an opportunity to live out the passions and the desires that I have.”
He said the letter represents her strength and commitment to wanting better for both of them.
“I saw my mom work day in and day out; she never made it feel like we didn’t have. Her commitment to that really instilled a level of resilience in me to make me see that whatever I do put my mind to is possible,” said Holness who noted that his mother is very proud of him.
When Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica in 2025, Holness co-founded Jamaica Strong and raised over $20,000 in nine days for relief. He travelled to the country with a camera visiting St. James, Westmoreland, and St. Elizabeth. That work became “Jamaica Strong: Rising After The Storm,” a short documentary of what they found across those parishes.
In 2026, he was accepted as a mentor with the CreaTech Incubator, run by Kingston Creative out of downtown Kingston. He now works one-on-one with a Jamaican founder through a full incubation cycle, helping a creative build a business there.
“To be able to help a young creative from where I was born, that for me is special to be able to give back in those ways. For me, it’s about serving, so as much people as I can serve that’s where the impact is going to last. It gives me an opportunity to live through people.”
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| Photo contributed. Dionne Sinclair, Vice President, Clinical Operations and Chief Nursing Executive at CAMH |
Sinclair is an internationally recognized certified healthcare executive, community builder, and financial literacy advocate whose career reflects a lifelong commitment to equity, excellence, and empowerment across the diaspora.
She currently serves as vice president, clinical operations and chief nursing executive at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, where she brings an energizing and compassionate leadership style that empowers teams and inspires excellence.
Sinclair initiated Career Day, a signature CAMH program that invites underestimated students from the Greater Toronto Area's Public and Catholic School Boards into the hospital to meet and learn directly from Black healthcare leaders working across every area of the organization.
The program opens doors for young people who rarely see themselves reflected in senior healthcare roles, offering mentorship, exposure, and a tangible pathway into the health professions.
She serves on the board of trustees at CAMH, is involved with the Pan-Canadian Nurses of
African Descent, and is the founder of the Canadian Black Nurses Network, an organization
dedicated to supporting, connecting, and elevating Black nurses across Canada.
For the past four years, Sinclair has served on the board of directors of Curling Jamaica, Jamaica's national curling team, supporting the growth and international representation of a sport that continues to break new ground for Jamaican athletes on the world stage.
Her involvement reflects her willingness to show up for community institutions that expand what is possible for Jamaicans and people of Jamaican descent, whether on the ice, in the hospital, or in a boardroom.
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| Photo contributed. Trevor Lloyd Massey, Founder of the Lifelong Leadership Institute |
Massey, who was born in Kingston and has devoted his life to service—both to Jamaica and to Canada, where he has lived for nearly six decades—said his formative years at Wolmer’s Boys School laid the foundation for a lifelong commitment to leadership.
Commenting on the JDIA Icon Award, he says he sees himself as simply being the person who embodies the collective efforts of so many others.
“What it says to me is that I’m fronting for a lot of other outstanding people for the next generation. I’m actually a person who is embodying the efforts of many other Jamaicans who have contributed over a lifetime to helping young people, Black youth, the Jamaican diaspora. If not me, it could be any other of these people because we’re all at a certain stage where we’ve seen the need and we’ve committed ourselves to helping as best we can.”
The retired college registrar of Centennial College for more than 30 years founded the Lifelong Leadership Institute (LLI) in Toronto, in 2012, as part of an initiative to recognize and celebrate Jamaica’s fiftieth anniversary of independence.
The organization is dedicated to leadership development and educational advancement for Black youth through its flagship programs, Leadership by Design, and SummerUp.
Massey has volunteered his expertise to numerous community initiatives, including the Heritage Singers Canada’s initiatives to host performances by Jamaica’s Pantomime Company in Toronto; the early development of Tropicana Community Services; and leadership roles such as president of the Wolmer’s Alumni Association – Toronto.
For more than a decade, he co‑produced the highly regarded Wolmer’s Luncheon Concert fundraiser. He served as chair of the Black Business and Professional Association’s National Scholarships Program and as vice‑president of Jamaica 50 Celebrations Inc., the organization responsible for Toronto’s commemoration of Jamaica’s 50th anniversary in 2012.
In the early years of the University of the West Indies’ Annual Toronto Benefit Gala, Massey contributed as a dedicated volunteer.
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| Left to right: Consul-General Kurt Davis, Diana R. Burke, Dwayne Winston Holness, Marcia Brown, and Verna Andrade at Consulate General of Jamaica at Toronto |
Tickets for the 2026 Jamaican Diaspora Impact Awards Gala are available at jdia.netlify.app.
