2017 YCLA Finalist Faith Gealey

Faith Gealey is a community builder.  Whether at home or at work, she brings people together.  Faith works as a speech language pathologist at the Health Services Authority where she also serves as the Staff Welfare Association Chairperson with a focus on building staff morale and providing support to live healthier work and home lives.   She is a member of the board of the Special Needs Foundation and uses this position to help advocate for the children in our community with special needs and their families.  This advocacy led to her appointment as the Deputy Chairperson of the Cayman Islands National Disabilities council where she can now work on advocating for people with disabilities at a National level.

 

Faith is a founding member and is the current Chairperson of the Caribbean Speech and Hearing Association.  She is passionate about her field and wants to encourage more Caymanians to pursue Allied Health professions. She uses this medium to mentor and support students studying speech pathology as well as physiotherapy and occupational therapy.

Faith is also one of the founding members of Cayman Thanksgiving and feels that our connection to our Caymanian heritage and culture is paramount in ensuring the legacy of our forefathers lives on.  Faith believes that the key to demonstrating good leadership is through serving her community and she actively acts on those principles daily.  Faith’s energy and talents are wide reaching and she uses them in many ways from using her fluency in American Sign Language to assist Cayman’s underserved Deaf community to her annual christmas cakes and her role in the preservation of traditional Caymanian values by supporting events like Cayman Thanksgiving, Faith never fails to find the thing that helps us connect to each other.

Age: 34 years old

Degree:

B.S. in Communication Sciences and Disorders.

Master of Science in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Florida State University.

Employment:

Physiotherapy Department, Cayman Islands Health Services Authority

Accomplishments/Advocacy:  

Creating awareness and support for people with disabilities in our community.  Creating appreciation for and understanding of traditional Caymanian culture (and food).

Core Message for the Youth:  

Mentorship is your key to success!  Actively seek mentorship in all areas of your life, and be open to the guidance you receive.  Every experience you obtain, and every piece of advice you receive will help to shape you to be a valuable member of our community.  As you grow, use your experience to then mentor others, so that the circle of mentorship and support remains an ever present part of your life.