Professor Dale Webber was appointed to the position of Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the Mona Campus, at The University of the West Indies (UWI) with effect August 1, 2018 having served as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Graduate Studies and Research between August 1 2015 and July 31, 2018. Professor Webber has had a distinguished career in Coastal Ecology and Environmental Management and a strong and consistent record of teaching, graduate supervision, administration and research excellence which spans 30 years of service with The UWI.
He joined The UWI in 1989 as Warden of Taylor Hall (of residence) at the Mona Campus. In 1991, he moved to become Lecturer in the Department of Life Sciences, was promoted in 2003 to a Senior Lecturer and then to the rank of Professor in 2010. Between 2003 and 2007, Professor Webber served as Head of the Department of Life Sciences and served as Associate Dean Undergraduate Matters 1997 to 2001 and Associate Dean Graduate Matters 2008 to 2009. From 1992 to 2001, he was the Assistant Director for the Centre for Marine Sciences at Mona, and returned as Director from 2005 to 2015, and held the Grace Kennedy’s James Moss-Solomon Snr. Chair in Environmental Management from 2010 to 2015 as Director of the Centre for Environmental Management. In 2015, Professor Webber was appointed Pro Vice-Chancellor for Graduate Studies. His portfolio expanded to Graduate Studies and Research in 2016 when the graduate studies and research portfolios merged.
Professor Webber also has an excellent record of public service, serving as Chairman, Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ) Board of Directors, Convener of the CAPE Environmental Sciences Panel for the Caribbean Examination Council, Chairman of CL Environmental Company and Chairman of Jamaica’s Climate Change Advisory Board. At the national level, his effective engagement with the private and public sector is well-known. Particularly, in the environmental private sector, Professor Webber led the transformation and operation of the EFJ, as the largest environmental grant/donor organisation in Jamaica, and as its Chairman, oversaw its successful merger with Forest Conservation Fund (FCF). As an academic and a researcher, Professor Webber has produced seven book chapters and thirty-five publications in peer-reviewed journals. He has presented his research findings at conferences locally, regionally and internationally and has written over twenty technical reports for the governments of the Caribbean and attracted approximately US$2.5 million in research grants over the past 20 years. He has supervised 21 MSc, 27 MPhil and 15 PhD students to successful completion across a range of interests, from water quality and coastal ecology to oceanography, ecosystem modelling and the effectiveness of multilateral environmental agreements in environmental management.