- Barrow, Dame Nita
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▪ 1996Barbadian public health official and diplomat (b. Nov. 15, 1916, St. Lucy, Barbados—d. Dec. 19, 1995, Bridgetown, Barbados), capped a long and distinguished career with her appointment in 1990 as the first woman governor-general of Barbados. Barrow, who was the sister of the country's first prime minister, Errol Barrow, studied nursing in Barbados, at the Universities of Toronto and Edinburgh, and at Columbia University, New York City. During the 1940s and '50s, she held a variety of nursing and public health posts in Barbados and Jamaica, and in 1964 she became an adviser to the World Health Organization (WHO). She rapidly gained international stature as nursing adviser (1967-71) to the Pan American Health Organization, medical commissioner (1971-80) and a president (1983) of the World Council of Churches, president (1975-83) of the World YWCA, health consultant (1981-86) to WHO, president (1982-90) of the International Council for Adult Education, and Barbadian ambassador (1986-90) to the UN. Barrow presided at the 1985 international women's conference in Nairobi, Kenya, and was the only woman named to the Eminent Persons Group set up to investigate racism in South Africa. In 1988 she lost a bid for the presidency of the UN General Assembly. Barrow was made Dame of the Order of St. Andrew in 1980.
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Universalium. 2010.