Rampersad was born in rural Trinidad. She started her career as a freelance journalist at the
San Fernando office of the
Trinidad Guardian, before being called three months later to join the staff of the
Port of Spain headquarters, where she has worked in various capacities as reporter of health, education, culture and politics. She has written
Guardian columns such as "Discover Trinidad and Tobago", "Teenlife", "Environment Friendly", "In Gabilan", "I Beg to Move", "The Week That Was", and "The C Monologues", as Literarily. She served as editor of its
U Magazine and
Sunday Guardian. She covered most of the
Jamaat al Muslimeen coup attempt involving activities at
Trinidad and Tobago Television for the
Guardian during July 1990. She was one of the founding journalists at
Newsday.
Education Rampersad was the first sitting journalist/editor in the Caribbean to hold a PhD. She completed her PhD at the
University of the West Indies following a bachelor's degree in which she earned first-class honours.
Awards and fellowships Rampersad holds awards in Journalism (BWIA Media Awards for Excellence in Journalism - Social and Economic Commentary and Pan American Health Journalism Award for Excellence in Health Reporting. She received a Nuffield Foundation Press Award at
Wolfson College,
Cambridge University, the Foreign Press Centre of Japan Fellowship and a Government of India ITEC Scholarship to the Indian Institute of Mass Communication where she received its highest, the Rajasthan Patrika Award. She also received a Commonwealth Professional Fellowship and is considered a Commonwealth Gender Scholar. In 2018, Rampersad won the National Medal (Gold) for Distinguished Contributions to the Development of Women/Journalism.
Educator Rampersad is a pioneer and specialist scholar and educator about the intersection of education, media and culture in the world of new media. She has worked on media strategies for the
Commonwealth Foundation and the Caribbean Institute of Agricultural Research and Development, and pioneered the Excellence in Agricultural Journalism Award of 2010. She has prepared, presented and published numerous papers on media, culture and gender including at Caribbean Cultural Diversity to
UNESCO, Commonwealth Diversity Conferences, and Arcade/Acted. Rampersad facilitated the training of multisectoral communities in Belize, Jamaica, Grenada and elsewhere in Intangible Cultural Heritage and community capacity development and preparation of dossiers for UNESCO World Heritage. Rampersad was President of the UNESCO Education Commission, Vice President of the Subsidiary Body of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage, and Vice President of the Commonwealth Journalist Association. She founded, with Nobel laureate
Derek Walcott, the Trinidad Theatre Workshop Fund for Literature, Drama and Film. == Bibliography ==