Mia Amor Mottley, QC, MP

Member of Parliament, Barbados

Mia Amor Mottley, QC, MP, Bachelor of Laws is a Member of Parliament for the Constituency of St. Michael North East in Barbados.

Mia Mottley was elected to Parliament for the first time in September 1994. One of the youngest people ever to be assigned a ministerial portfolio at age 29, she was appointed to the Ministry of Education, Youth Affairs and Culture. During her tenure she co-authored an acclaimed white paper on education that draws the link between better education and job fulfillment.

In 1996 and again in 1997 she served as Chairman of the CARICOM Standing Committee of Ministers of Education; thereafter being named Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Affairs and Development in a February 2006 cabinet reshuffle.She is also credited with being the visionary behind the Education Sector Enhancement Programme, popularly know as Edutech, which aims to increase the number of young people contributing to the island’s sustainable social and economic development.

Following the Barbados Labour Party’s defeat in the election held on January 15, 2008 and Prime Minister Owen Arthur’s laying down the mantle as party leader, she was chosen as BLP party leader on January 19, 2008. She is the first woman to lead the party, as well as the country’s first female Opposition Leader. Mia Mottley was sworn in as Opposition Leader on 7 February 2008; since her inauguration she has promised the people of Barbados that the Barbados Labour Party will be a strong and unified Opposition who will fight for the rights of all citizens in the country.