THE MONTHLY GLEANER | DECEMBER 12 - JANUARY 11, 2025 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com | NEWS 12 Aubrey Campbell/Gleaner Writer BRONX, NY: HUNDREDS GATHERED at the Butler United Methodist Church, 3920 Paulding Avenue, Bronx, on Saturday, November 30, to say farewell to Dr Michelle Malcolm James, who was president of the Organisation for International Development (OID), up to the time of her death in October. Malcolm James, DNP, RN, FNP-BC, who left Manchester, Jamaica for the USA in 1979, served the registered, healthcare-centred organisation for some 26 years in a number of capacities. She will be best remembered for spearheading the mobile mammography initiative, aimed at providing breast and cervical cancer screening for women in rural, urban and remote areas in Jamaica, annually. The gesture reflected her lifelong commitment to enhancing women’s health services, especially in under-served communities. Malcolm James was employed as the wellness clinical manager for Con Edison at the Orange & Rockland County Utilities. Her homegoing service was conducted by the Rev Dr Allen Pinckney, Jr, with Rev Noel Chin saying a prayer of comfort. There were outpourings of tributes by family and friends, including – brother Shaun Malcolm, Dr Roy Streete, OID founder/chairman, and Denise Soares, OID secretary and her friend. A proclamation from the office of NY State Senator Jamaal T. Bailey, citing her years of dedication to the youth and medical communities, was presented to the family. She is survived by her parents, Babia Lewin and Desmond Malcolm, her husband Andre, daughters Ashley and Anika, brother Shaun, sisters Detha and Danielle, and other relatives. She was interred at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York. Remembering late OID president Dr Michelle Malcolm James, late OID president. CONTRIBUTED - Fond farewell for Dr Michelle Malcolm James Kimone Francis/ Senior Staff Reporter BORN AND raised in the gritty inner-city community of Grants Pen, St Andrew, Kalisha Dixon is spreading her Jamaican roots in Maryland, where she has been elected council member for the town of Bladensburg. Dixon ran on a Democratic ticket, defeating three other candidates on her way to office in local elections held in October, weeks before the United States’ national polls. “I never had any doubts. The Lord told me I was going to win the election,” she told The Sunday Gleaner of her victory. A philanthropist and youth pastor at Faith Full Gospel Deliverance Church of God in Washington, DC, where she actively supports her community, Dixon said she had the backing of her church and surrounding communities that campaigned vigorously on her behalf, doing door-to-door canvassing. “Some people were not happy with the results that they lost, and so they had to call an emergency meeting to recount the ballots, and I came up with six extra votes,” she said. This secured her position as the elected representative for Ward 1 of Bladensburg. The town is divided into two wards. Combined, they account for approximately 10,000 residents. But the Jamaica-born Dixon never had a desire for politics or any ambitions of a political future, let alone in the US, she told The Sunday Gleaner. Dixon, 46, was delivered at home at Grants Pen Avenue by a midwife. NEW DAY She attended New Day All-Age School, now New Day Primary, before moving on to Norman Manley Jamaica-born Kalisha Dixon makes waves in Maryland politics Kalisha Dixon Please see JAMAICAN, 15
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