Speakers

Most of Gillian’s professional career is in the public sector serving in senior managerial positions related to entertainment, culture and creative industries development in Jamaica. Her expertise covers creative industries primarily film, music and entertainment. Her policy focus is culture, trade, investment promotion for entertainment and culture, as well as community engagement and development through culture and the arts. She has served on several public sector boards and is a speaker on film, music and entertainment, cultural data and statistics. She was the Chair of the multi-sectoral UNESCO Creative City of Music committee that spearheaded the designation of Kingston as a Creative City of Music in 2015.

Gillian’s short career in the private sector spans work with academic institutions as well as with the non-profit Fenway Alliance in Boston, Massachusetts. For the 21-member educational, scientific and cultural organization Fenway Alliance, she authored the Community Partnership Resource Guide a desk reference to help community groups in the Fenway/Mission Hill areas access Boston/Fenway arts and cultural institutions. She also co-authored the Anchors and Wings Report on the social and economic impact of the Fenway Alliance institutions to the Boston Fenway area. She was Outreach Coordinator for the Alliance, later serving as their Project Director for the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) and Boston Foundation (TBF) grants.

Ms McDaniel holds a MPhil in Cultural Studies from UWI Mona, a Juris Doctor from the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle, Washington and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and Political Science from Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus, New York. Gillian is currently pursuing a PhD and her most recent academic publications are on Data Poverty and Coloniality in the Anglophone Caribbean as well as co-authoring work on AI and Culture in Jamaica and the Caribbean.