Ann-Marie Williams heads the regional Gender and Development Programme at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat as its deputy programme manager. Her regional mandate is to promote and coordinate the work of gender equality, equity and women’s empowerment among and beyond the Region’s 20M inhabitants. 

She is a British Chevening Scholar who obtained a Master’s Degree in Gender and Development from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex in the UK. She used those skills to head the National Women’s Commission in Belize for 10 years, 2008-2018, where among other policy initiatives, she spearheaded and coordinated both the passage and implementation of the National Gender Policy and the National Gender-Based Violence Action Plan.

As Belize’s first Humphrey Fellow, she also pursued post graduate studies in Trafficking in Persons, Policy and Prevention in 2015, at American University, Washington College of Law in DC.

Ann-Marie is also an award-winning journalist, former television anchor and news editor of Great Belize Television, Channel 5. During her active media career in radio, television and print she pursued political, gender equality, Economics and environmental stories.

As a native Belizean, she has served her community in several organizations over the years; closest to her heart remains the YWCA where she’s been an executive board member for over 12 years.