Ambassador Sheila Sealy Monteith is a career civil servant currently assigned as Permanent Secretary/Head of the Jamaican Foreign Service since February 2021. She served from 2017 to 2020 as Ambassador to Belgium (with concurrent accreditation to France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Monaco, Portugal, Spain, the European Union, UNESCO and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)). Prior to that, she served as High Commissioner to Canada from 2010 to 2014. She was also appointed as Ambassador to Mexico from 2005 to 2010 (with concurrent accreditation to Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama), and High Commissioner to Belize.
She has dedicated her thirty-six years of service in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade to the theory and practice of diplomacy at bilateral, regional and multilateral levels with advance training and extensive experience in the formulation, implementation and management of foreign policy. She has particular interest in development issues and in understanding international organizations and their role in development and has active involvement in human resource management, policy-making and implementation.
In recognition of her service, she was awarded the Order of Distinction (Commander Class) by the Government of Jamaica, in 2019. She was also awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle by the Government of Mexico.
A graduate of the University of the West Indies, Ambassador Sealy Monteith holds a Bachelor of Arts General (Hons), an Advanced Post-Graduate Diploma (Hons) in International Relations and Master of Science in international Relations. She also holds a Professional Certificate in Human Resource Management from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada and is a Graduate of the Public Sector Senior Leadership Programme. Ambassador Sealy Monteith is married with two children.
