Mrs. Myrtle Palacio holds a Trained Teacher’s Diploma, Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and Business Management with cum laude honours, and a Master of Science degree in Urban Studies with concentration in Social Planning and Community Economic Development. She conducts research, presents technical papers at national and international conferences, and has published on topical areas of socio-political, socio-cultural and socio-economical concerns. Her weekly column in the Amandala in 1998/2000 broached topics such as, the family, poverty, gender issues, ethnicity, and the socio-political context.
As an entrepreneur, Mrs. Palacio pioneered the political opinion polling culture, the computer and offshore data entry industries in Belize, through her organization Glessima Research and Services Ltd. Glessima was also well known for its commitment to skills training and job placement, as well as, the contribution of equipment to education institutions. Originally, the concept of Glessima Research was influenced by Mrs. Palacio’s short term experience in party politics, as one of two women candidates for the Peoples United Party in the 1984 general election. Mrs. Palacio taught for over twenty years at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education in Belize. She participated in several election observer missions to the Caribbean, Curacao and Sierra Leone, with CARICOM, IFES and The Commonwealth Secretariat. Mrs. Palacio was one of five persons appointed in February 2002 by the President of Trinidad & Tobago to serve as a member of the Commission of Enquiry into the work of the Elections and Boundaries Commission of Trinidad and Tobago.
In 1999 Mrs. Palacio was honoured three times—in March by the Ministry of Education for her contribution to cultural awareness; in May by the National Library Service for her outstanding contribution to the Belizean society; and in June she was appointed to be an Ordinary Member of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE). In June 2001 Mrs. Palacio was recognized by Friends in Support of the Diocese of Belize, in New York, for her dedicated service to family and community. In 2003 she was acknowledged by the Los Angeles Belizean Educational Network (LABEN), and was featured in the newsletter LABEN News for its January/February issue. In June 2007 she was awarded the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her contribution to community service.
Her voluntary participation includes being founding member of the Child Abuse and Neglect Council, and the Belize Nutrition Communication Network; conducting Election analysis for Radio and TV Election Watch programmes; Board Member of National Organization for the Prevention of Child Abuse; Assistant Chair to the Board of the Belize Technical College; Coordinator for the National Garifuna Council, including anchoring a weekly forty-five-minute radio programme; Member of a six-person team of the National Housing Task Force; Chairperson to the National Committee for Families and Children; and Board Member for the Association of the Caribbean Electoral Organization.
Mrs. Palacio served in the Public Service of Belize from June 1999 to February 2008, firstly as Chief Elections Officer until September 2005. During her tenure, the Elections and Boundaries Department was fully computerized and restructured, continuous voter education implemented, and full-time customer services expanded to three other areas in the country. Other major accomplishments included maintaining an informative website, setting strategies and policies for 100% data integrity and transparency, facilitating an annual Open House, organizing the first ever three-in-one elections in 2003, and providing the atmosphere for career and personal development for staff members.
In September 2005 Mrs. Palacio accepted the position of Director, Office of Governance extending her work to the wider Public Service until the remainder of the life of the Government in February 2008. The Office of Governance was an initiative of public service modernization, in furthering the goal to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public service management, public sector modernization and good governance initiatives. The Office of Governance was an amalgam of two government agencies, namely, the Governance Unit from the Ministry of National Development, and Public Service Reform and Human Resource Management and Development from the then defunct Ministry of the Public Service. In addition, the Office was also responsible for a new business of government, that of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) and Electronic Government (e-government). Under the theme “Putting People First—Achieving More with Less”, the Office as the leading catalyst for change embarked on a series of initiatives aimed at public sector managerial capacity building efforts; and provided supporting tools to sustain public administration reform through policies, such as e-government ICT and human capacity development policies.
Oral history and genealogy are research techniques employed by Mrs. Palacio to collect information about Belize’s culture at the source. She has shared several publications including “Who and What in Belizean Elections 1954 to 1993” published in 1993; and two publications in 2011 entitled “Electoral Politics: The Naked Truth” and “ADÜGÜrahani: A Walk Through Garifuna Spiritualism”.
Since retiring from the Public Service of Belize in 2008 Myrtle Palacio pursued fields of personal interests, such as, graphic design, web design, art and digital imaging, for which she completed training at SJC School of Professional Studies in 2009. She has participated in several art exhibitions in Belize and abroad, as a way of sharing her photographs. She also plays the guitar steel pan having received training from the All Stars Steel Band in 2011. From 2012 to 2015 Mrs. Palacio held the position of Secretary General to one of Belize’s major political parties, and was responsible for management and capacity development activities. Education is power and developing human capacities is of utmost importance to Myrtle Palacio, as she continues to acquire knowledge on Belize through primary and secondary research.
Arreini Palacio Morgan attended the University of the West Indies and received a B.Sc. in Mass Communication with concentration in Gender Studies. She has several years of work experience in communication work both directly in the mass media and in management. Firstly, this was anchoring, as well as investigating and writing news for television at Channel 5 News. Then communicating and managing conservation and environmental information as one method of advocacy at the Protected Areas Conservation Trust (PACT) and later the Belize Audubon Society.
Presently, Arreini is the Executive Director of the Southern Environmental Association (SEA), which is a community based, conservation, non-governmental organization headquartered in Placencia Village, Stann Creek District, Belize. SEA plays a key role in protected management in southern Belize, which includes surveillance, enforcement, visitor management and education.
Arreini also does voluntary work in the community and currently holds positions as a member of the Board of Directors for the Placencia Belize Tourism Industry Association, the Statistical Institute of Belize and the Belize Lupus Association.
My training has been in anthropology, receiving my doctorate in 1982 from the University of California at Berkeley in social anthropology. In 1971 I had received my Master of Arts degree from the University of Manitoba, Canada in Mesoamerican archaeology. From 1982 to 2003 I headed the University of the West Indies Open Campus in Belize, where I developed a strong programme in continuing studies combining teaching and wide-ranging research within Belize and other parts of the Caribbean. I have also maintained an abiding interest in the indigenous peoples of Belize and the Caribbean, doing much publication on their well-being and spearheading their organization for human rights.
Joseph O. Palacio 2018
