Executive Leadership Team

Dr. Keith Nurse was appointed to the position of President of the College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago (COSTAATT), with effect from November 01, 2022.

Dr. Nurse is the former Principal/CEO of the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College in Saint Lucia and has worked as a Senior Economist and Advisor on Structural Policies and Innovation at the OECD Development Centre in Paris. He is the former World Trade Organization Chair at The University of the West Indies, where he also served as the Director of the Shridath Ramphal Trade Policy Centre, Executive Director of UWI Consulting Inc., Senior Fellow at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute for Social and Economic Studies and Senior Lecturer at the Institute of International Relations.

Throughout his career, Dr. Nurse has published extensively on a wide array of issues such as trade policy and services, industrial policy and innovation governance, creative industries and the digital economy, tourism industries, migration and diasporas, gender and economic restructuring, climate action and sustainable development and disaster risk reduction.

Dr. Nurse has also worked as a consultant and advisor to various governments, regional and international agencies, including the UN Committee for Development Policy, the OAS, the IDB, and the Commonwealth and CARICOM Secretariats.

Dr. Helen Williams-Cumberbatch was appointed to the position of Vice President, Student Affairs effective July 1, 2022. Prior to this appointment, she served in a range of positions at COSTAATT for over 20 years. In the last decade, she has led the College’s marketing and public relations and enrollment management departments.

Dr. Williams-Cumberbatch is a Fulbright scholar who completed doctoral studies at Ohio University, USA. She holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education and Student Affairs, an MSc. in Higher Education (Enrollment Management specialization) and a BSc. in Management Studies. Her doctoral research investigated the experiences and factors that contributed to thriving among community college students in Trinidad and Tobago, and the findings of her research have informed the development of a unique model of student development for COSTAATT which will play a critical role in the positive transformation of student experiences at the College in the years ahead.

Dr. Williams-Cumberbatch currently serves as 1st Vice President of the Association of Caribbean Higher Education Administrators (ACHEA). Her passion for student success positions her to lead the Division of Student Affairs in the next chapter of the COSTAATT story of transforming lives, communities and the nation…one student at a time.

Dr. Naseem Koylass was appointed to the position of Vice President, Academic Affairs effective July 1, 2022.

Dr. Koylass is a long-standing member of the COSTAATT community and has held a wide range of leadership positions over the last 20 years, including department chair, campus dean and more recently, Associate Vice President, Academic Affairs.

Dr Koylass has played a critical role in the College’s accreditation and quality assurance activities since COSTAATT was first established in October 2000, and brings to her new position a wealth of knowledge and experience in academic and administrative leadership. As the chief administrator in the Division of Academic Affairs, she has guided and mentored the school deans, department chairs, faculty and staff and inspired them to continuously strive to achieve the institution’s goals and objectives.

Dr. Koylass’ qualifications, which include a doctorate in Educational Leadership/Curriculum and Instruction, a Master of Science in Economics, a diploma in Educational Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Economics, ably position her to lead the Division of Academic Affairs in this next leg of COSTAATT’s transformational journey to become a centre of excellence in teaching, research and service to the benefit of our diverse communities and the wider nation.

Dr. Alvinelle Matthew was appointed Vice President, Human Resources Division at the College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of the Trinidad and Tobago (COSTAATT) in January 2018.

She possess a wealth of experience in developing and administering strategic human resource functions within the tertiary level sector and in various private organisations. She is passionate about human resource development and on a part-time basis engages in teaching human resource principles as an adjunct faculty. She also serves as a practicum supervisor at the University of the West Indies.

She is the holder of a Doctorate in Philosophy in Social Policy with an emphasis on Human Resource Development from the University of the West Indies. Her program was partially completed at the University of Alberta, Canada through a scholarship award from the Canada-CARICOM scholarship. She also holds a Master of Arts in Human Resource Management (distinction) from the Arthur Lok Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts with majors in Human Resource Management and Psychology Counselling from the Caribbean Nazarene College.

Lisa Solomon is an Attorney-at-Law with close to 20 years experience, having worked as a member of various firms, in public institutions and in her own private practice. She is knowledgeable in company law and corporate governance and has worked closely with various boards of directors in the capacity of Assistant Corporate Secretary and Corporate Secretary.

Ms. Solomon obtained her Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of the West Indies and the Legal Education Certificate from the Hugh Wooding Law School.

In February 2005, Ms. Carla Alonzo joined the COSTAATT team in the capacity of Assistant Director, Enrolment Management from the University of Westminster, London, where she was the Deputy Manager Admissions and Marketing, Harrow Campus. As Assistant Director, Carla was charged with the responsibility of setting up systems to establish the College’s first independent admissions office. Within a year of her tenure at the College she was appointed to the position of Director, Enrolment Management and spearheaded the successful implementation of COSTAATT’s first online admissions function.

In 2009, she was promoted to the position of Assistant to the President and currently serves as a member of the College’s Executive Leadership Team. Ms. Alonzo has been Chair of COSTAATT’s Quality Council since 2009. In addition, she has served as a member of the College’s institutional registration team and the Accreditation Steering Committee, which guided the College in its successful quest for accreditation in 2010.

Ms. Alonzo possesses an MSc. in Educational Leadership, from the University of Leicester (UK), a Postgraduate Diploma in Communication from the University of Westminster (UK), a B.A. in Languages and Social Science and a Diploma in Education (Teaching of Modern Foreign Languages) from The University of the West Indies. She is the current interim Country Director of the local chapter of the Caribbean Area Network for Quality Assurance in Tertiary Education (CANQATE), and served on the Board of the Association of Female Executives of Trinidad and Tobago (AFETT).

Anjenney Dwarika joined the COSTAATT team in 2001 as Coordinator of the Medical Laboratory Technology Programme and was promoted to Chair, Health Science Technologies department in 2005 and later Dean, School of Nursing Health and Environmental Sciences in September 2009.

Prior to Anjenney’s career at COSTAATT, she worked as regional manager for laboratory services at the North Central Regional Health Authority. In addition to serving on several external committees, such as the Regional Curriculum Advisory Committee for Health Sciences (Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), Mrs. Dwarika is currently a member of the MSTTE Steering Committee for the establishment of the National School of Nursing and Allied Health at El Dorado.  She served as a member of the team that was successful in applying for European Development Fund (EDF) grant funding for the establishment of the College’s Health Sciences Research Institute (HeSRI).

Mrs. Dwarika holds a B.Sc. in Psychology and Health and a M.Sc. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Ulster. In addition to her academic qualifications she is a certified Prior Learning Assessment Administrator (Council of Adult Experiential Learning (CAEL), a certified Competency Based Curriculum developer (Worldwide Instructional Design Systems (WIDS), as well as a certified member of the American Medical Technologists (AMT) Association.

Neil Sylvester was appointed Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Human  Services in September , 2009. He has been at COSTAATT since October, 2001 and has also held the posts of   Lecturer Transitional Studies, Senior Lecturer and Chair in the Department of Mathematics.

He is a graduate of the University of the West Indies and holds Masters Degrees in Business Administration (Finance Option) and Applied Mathematics (Fluid Dynamics), a Diploma in Educational Administration and a B.Sc. General.

Before COSTAATT, Mr. Sylvester was employed at St. Joseph’s Convent Port of Spain which he left in 2001 as head of the department of mathematics.

Mr. Sylvester has been spearheading an outreach programme to at risk youth resident at correctional facilities in this country. This is considered a major project of the School of Liberal Arts and Human Services and officially began in June 2010. It is his hope that this would assist in the transformation and rehabilitation of these young men and women who are to be reintegrated into the wider society. The project is ongoing and is heavily supported by full-time faculty at the College.

Lalita Ramlal-Chirkoot currently serves as the Dean of the School of Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning, a position she has held for the past 2 ½ years.  Under her leadership, the School has moved from being a mere concept on the organizational chart, to become a well established provider of professional development programmes and a key revenue generating arm of the College.

Lalita joined the COSTAATT team in 2001 as the sole full-time senior lecturer in the Department of Natural and Life Sciences, and was charged with the responsibility of developing a support unit to serve the College’s many para-professional programmes that required courses in these areas.  Not surprisingly, Lalita became the first ever Chair of the Department of Natural and Life Sciences, during which time she lead the team responsible for the development and implementation of three associate degree programmes, and for supporting the entire College in its natural science requirements.  She also initiated work on two new bachelor degree programmes, which were implemented, subsequent to her appointment to the position of Dean.

Mrs. Ramlal-Chirkoot possesses a Bachelor’s degree in Physics (hons.) from the University of the West Indies.  She also possesses a Masters degree in Education and is currently pursuing a PhD in Higher Education Administration.   A research affiliate of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, Mrs. Ramlal-Chirkoot actively participates in their many publications on adult education and is also a certified Prior Learning and Assessment (PLAR) assessor.  She has served on many national committees in higher education and is driven by the philosophy that learning takes place both within and external to the classroom, which supports her passion for research in the areas of adult education and student development.