Anika Hylton carries her entire name for formal and resume occasions because she said here publications are linked to her maiden name.
Anika Keens-Douglas Hylton, is a public policy analyst and policy writer trained in the Caribbean and the United States, who has worked with governments, institutions such as the United Nations and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) as a Caribbean consultant, and companies and non-profits alike for more than 15 years.
Heavily influenced by the integrity and ambition of her entrepreneur parents and their role as community-shapers and pioneers, she has also taught at all educational levels from the age of 17 – the start of her professional life.
With a mother who was an educator, diplomat, and social worker, she feels that if she can teach, she must do so.
Hylton is currently part of the Social Sciences Department and Africana, Caribbean and Black Studies Department at CUNY, teaching primarily at York and Brooklyn College.
Her life-journey has truly felt like the epitome of all that every Caribbean flag has come to represent — an amalgamation of influences, an intensive education, pride in the uniqueness of island nations, importance of community service, and a mezclada or mixe or melting pot of heritage and culture.
With parents from Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago, respectively, and family directly linked to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, East India, Scotland, Africa, and even the indigenous Carib Indians, she has a wealth of history in her identity.
Hylton is part of a family of storytellers, griots, and orators. She is blessed to have had published poets as her mother and uncles Paul and Richardo Keens-Douglas, whose work with Caribbean symbols, such as Brer Anansi, Tanti Merle, and la Diablesse, are all part of her childhood bed-time.
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:
Grenada
EDUCATION:
M.P.A in Policy Analysis and Evaluation (magna cum laude) from the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, 2005
– Awarded the Harvard-LASPAU Fellowship/Scholarship providing majority tuition; B.A. Political Science and International Law from the Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, Texas (1995), graduated in two years by accelerating her program and testing out of courses.
OCCUPATION:
Lecturer
PERSON I ADMIRE MOST:
“I have yet to meet any other woman, wife, mother, pioneer, published writer and poet, teacher and principal, diplomat, chef, head nurse and mental health counselor, for starters, like Gloria Keens-Douglas nee Dalton, now deceased.
“I admired her unnerving brilliance and passion, as much as her stubborn tenacity and quiet humility. As the first black head nurse in an all-white renown Scottish hospital, she was no stranger to firsts. Coming from modest means, she could make a meal for six or seven, with the most minimal of ingredients and it would be of gourmet quality, and still have left-overs.
“I most admired her presence — her ability to command authority without ever demeaning anyone, pull the best out of her peers, students, and her children, and her unmatched humor, knowledge, and selflessness. Even in pain that few could endure, my mother continued to be herself, which is truly someone worth admiring.”
