The Virgin Islands will be big news in Washington, D.C., Thursday, June 24, when a gala reception that evening will kick off the first V.I. Leadership Summit.
The following day, Friday, at 6:30 a.m. the conference will get under way at the Washington Court Hotel on Capitol Hill with sessions scheduled through 5 p.m.
The summit is sponsored by the V.I. Institute of Development, which is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research foundation, according to founder and president Elizabeth Stanley, a St. Croix native and Washington, D.C., patent attorney.
"It is," she said, "essentially a V.I. think tank. It was founded to fill an obvious void in V.I. society: lack of an unbiased, non-governmental body dedicated to solving V.I. problems."
"The purpose of the summit," said Stanley, "is to bring together leaders from a wide cross-section of the V.I. community to flesh out solutions to problems in education, economic development, science and technology including Y2K, health and governance."
The forum will afford the territory's authorities in these fields an opportunity to speak out and share views.
Gov. Charles W. Turnbull and V.I. Delegate to Congress Donna Christian-Christiansen will head the group with Ruby Simmonds, commissioner of Education, Virgin Islander Wilma Lewis, who is the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, and St. Croix's Dr. Cora Christian among those slated to attend.
Stanley's ties to the Caribbean are manifold. She is president of the V.I. Association for the D.C. Metropolitan Area, and serves on the board of directors for the Institute of Caribbean Studies.
For further information on the summit, including registration dates and costs, visit the website by clicking here or call (202) 661-4607.