Celebrating Excellence: The 2025 Anthony N. Sabga Awards Laureates

17.02.2025

The Caribbean is home to extraordinary talent, and this year’s Anthony N. Sabga Awards for Caribbean Excellence recognize four outstanding individuals whose work is shaping the region’s future. From groundbreaking cancer research to the power of music, entrepreneurship, and advocacy, these laureates exemplify innovation, resilience, and dedication.

Each of them has made a profound impact in their respective fields, driving progress and inspiring the next generation. As we celebrate their achievements, we also celebrate the spirit of Caribbean excellence that continues to uplift communities and transform lives.

Learn more about the 2025 Laureates below:

PUBLIC & CIVIC CONTRIBUTIONS – Ayodele Dalgety-Dean (Guyana)

Ayodele Dalgety-Dean is a family therapist from Guyana whose NGO, Blossom Inc, offers services that endeavour to protect women and children from violence. It has also played a crucial role in integrating vulnerable migrant communities into Guyanese society.

Blossom Inc, founded by Dalgety-Dean in 2014, employs a multidisciplinary team approach that works collaboratively to respond to victim exploitation and abuse. It offers psychosocial services, conducts forensic interviews for use in court, and provides much-needed court support. Established to support the state’s Childcare & Protection Agency, it has expanded nationally from Georgetown, opening eight centres in five regions and employing close to 40 staff.

With its partners in government agencies, it is heavily engaged in raising awareness to prevent child sexual abuse, exploitation, and gender-based violence. It also works with socio-economically vulnerable indigenous communities such as the Warao, whose remoteness has historically impeded the delivery of aid and support.

In addition, Dalgety-Dean’s NGO has expanded its services to migrant communities, encouraging migrants and refugees to participate in the economy and society by helping them to navigate social services and economic life. Blossom’s Migrant and Host Community Services (MHCS) was launched in 2019. It caters to Venezuelan nationals, Guyanese who have lived in Venezuela for decades, and others such as Cubans and Haitians. It offers specialised mental health therapy, psychosocial support, child protection outreach, nutrition support, and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Services (WASH).

In 2020, Blossom launched its Education, Outreach and Advocacy Services to host workshops to prevent child sexual abuse, exploitation, and gender-based violence. Its Education and Outreach officers travel into coastal and hinterland communities to conduct needs assessments and promote referral systems.

Between 2017-2023, almost 2,000 people – the vast majority of them women and girls – benefited from Blossom’s therapy referrals. Over the same period, the NGO conducted almost 2,900 forensic interviews to gather information from victims and witnesses for use in legal settings. By 2023, Blossom had supported over 9,000 beneficiaries inclusive of migrants, conducting regular training sessions and workshops for the staff members who interact with them.

For her visionary leadership in transforming the landscape of child protection and advocacy in Guyana and improving the lives of indigenous people and migrant communities, Ayodele Dalgety-Dean is our 2025 Laureate for Public & Civic Contributions.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY – Dr Simone Badal (Jamaica)

Dr Simone Badal, an early-career Jamaican cancer researcher, has transformed cancer research through her pioneering development of Caribbean cancer cell lines, advancing treatment options for breast and prostate cancer in Black populations globally.

Recognizing the critical gap in cancer research models that predominantly represented Caucasian patients, Dr Badal achieved a historic breakthrough by creating ACRJ-PC28, the first Caribbean prostate cancer cell line in 2022. Under her leadership, her laboratory has developed four prostate cancer cell lines and three breast cancer cell lines, significantly expanding the representation of Black populations in cancer research.

At the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona campus, where she serves as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Dr Badal has published over 45 peer-reviewed papers. Her research on screening natural and synthetic compounds for anti-cancer properties has expanded across UWI’s campuses, fostering pan-Caribbean collaboration.

Her innovative work has attracted over US$1 million in funding, including the prestigious US$520,000 NIH Fogarty International Center’s Emerging Global Leader Award in 2020. She has secured additional grants from organizations like Pfizer and the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative to advance inclusive cancer research.

Beyond research, Dr Badal authored “No Cell Left Behind” (2023) and founded the ACRJ Foundation, which has raised over 1.5 million JMD for educational opportunities. She was selected for the 2024 Springer Nature and Breast Cancer Research Foundation Rising Scholars Program, received the 2022 Flair Distinguished Award for Science & Technology, and was recognized as a pioneer by Jamaica’s Scientific Research Council. She was also a runner-up for the 2021 Nature Research Award for Inspiring Women in Science.

For her paradigm-shifting research that promises to transform cancer outcomes for Caribbean people and her commitment to fostering scientific excellence in the region, Dr Simone Badal is named our 2025 Anthony N Sabga Caribbean Excellence Laureate in Science & Technology.

ARTS & LETTERS – Etienne Charles (Trinidad and Tobago)

Etienne Charles of Trinidad and Tobago is a jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer and Professor of Studio Music & Jazz at University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. His work combining jazz with the rhythms of the Caribbean demonstrates his mastery of the amalgamation of genres.

Since receiving a full scholarship to pursue his postgraduate degree at the Juilliard School of Music in 2006, Etienne has excelled at telling stories with sound, highlighting resonances between cultures. In his own words, he strives to give voice to unheard traditions by documenting parts of their rituals and disseminating them through performance. He has recently focused on multimedia performance, incorporating film into live performances.

Since 2006, he has released ten albums. His works, including “Creole Soul” and most recently “Creole Orchestra” have dominated Jazz Week charts. His latest album, “Creole Orchestra” received a NAACP Image Award nomination in the Outstanding Jazz Album category. In 2022, he was commissioned by the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York to produce a multimedia work with the New York Philharmonic that explored the removal of an African-American community to build the Lincoln Center in the 1950s and 1960s. Ultimately, he and the orchestra produced a memorial and critique titled “San Juan Hill: A New York Story”.

His professional accomplishments range from a first-place finish at the 2006 National Trumpet Competition in the United States to graduating from the Juilliard School in 2008 as the esteemed recipient of the William Schuman Prize. In 2012, he received a United States Congressional Record Citation for his musical contributions to Trinidad and Tobago and the world. In 2015, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for Music Composition. In 2021 he received a Creative Capital Award In 2024 he received the title “Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts” (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) from the French Ministry of Culture.

He has played as sideman on several Grammy-nominated albums for musicians such as jazz vocalist René Marie and bass guitarist Marcus Miller. He has also played with the world’s best jazz musicians – from Wynton Marsalis to the Count Basie Orchestra – yet remains connected to Caribbean culture and festivals.

He is involved in Trinidad and Tobago Carnival through his annual mas’ band, and Carnival season performances that frequently incorporate ‘non-traditional’ music, dance and visual arts. Since 2016, he has organised masterclasses and outreach concerts at children’s homes, educational and correctional institutions across Trinidad, demonstrating his commitment to using music to inspire, unite and educate.

For an exceptional track record of musical creativity rooted in Caribbean musical tradition, Etienne Charles is our Arts & Letters Laureate for 2025.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP – Rachel Renie-Gonzales (Trinidad & Tobago)

Rachel Renie-Gonzales is an e-commerce agri-entrepreneur who has leveraged online platforms to revolutionize food distribution in Trinidad and Tobago. She has created a farm-to-table value chain with the laudable mission of enhancing farmers’ livelihoods, reducing food waste and improving consumer choice. 

 Renie-Gonzales co-founded and launched the ‘D Market Movers’ website in 2009, focused on sourcing fresh, local produce for online ordering. The business was the first in Trinidad and Tobago to use an online e-commerce platform to sell local produce and locally-made products. It has since expanded to over 300 farmers (and artisans) with a customer base of over 10,000 online shoppers. 

  Over the past 16 years, Renie-Gonzales has increasingly used data-driven systems to tailor her services to consumer needs. In 2022, the business celebrated selling over a million pounds of food since inception. 

  Through the D Market Movers Group, farmers are supported and trained in areas of pre- and post-harvest handling, climate resilient strategies, digitization/mechanization and capacity support such as applying for grants or financing opportunities. She believes that by lending technical, strategic and industrial support, farmers can produce optimal output, which, in turn, maintains her supply chains. 

  With growth of over 30% per year, Renie-Gonzales has also established several other agri businesses including Farm and Function, which offers locally manufactured and processed frozen fruits that are distributed in T&T, Barbados, and Dominica. The brand’s aim is “to preserve the Caribbean way of life naturally in order to achieve food security for farmers, producers and consumers within the Caribbean.”

  Other businesses include a click-and-collect physical grocery store with a smoothie & salad bar, a food design studio specialized in building global brands through a Caribbean lens by providing branding, packaging design and marketing solutions for local and regional food businesses; she also hosts a roaming, farm-to-table dining experience utilizing 95% local inputs in every meal.

  She promotes technology as a tool for stimulating local and regional agriculture and was a feature speaker at the TEDx Port of Spain Women 2023 event where she shared her story of entrepreneurial inception and discussed how food shapes our lives. She has been a speaker on both Regional & Global stages as well as consulting with international aid Organizations.

 Since 2023, she has encouraged young people to embrace technology, as a mentor and Director at the Youth Business of Trinidad and Tobago. Her accolades include an Ernst & Young Emerging Entrepreneur award, presented to her and business partner David Thomas in 2016.

 For forging a path that leads to enhanced Caribbean food security and enduring in the face of significant adversity, Rachel Renie-Gonzales is our 2025 Laureate for Entrepreneurship.