SAN­DRA L BLOOD

June is ob­served in the Unit­ed States as Caribbean-Amer­i­can Her­itage Month, recog­nis­ing Amer­i­cans of Caribbean de­scent and cel­e­brat­ing Caribbean uni­ty, cul­tur­al pride, and aca­d­e­m­ic ex­cel­lence. This year marked the 19th an­nu­al ob­ser­vance na­tion­wide, while the Kings Coun­ty (Brook­lyn) courts host­ed their third an­nu­al cel­e­bra­tion on the af­ter­noon of June 27 at the Ju­ry As­sem­bly Room of the Kings Coun­ty Supreme Court (Crim­i­nal Term).

It was an es­pe­cial­ly proud day for T&T, as glob­al AI ex­pert Prof Renée Cum­mings re­ceived spe­cial recog­ni­tion dur­ing the event. The cel­e­bra­tion fea­tured sev­er­al touch­ing mo­ments, in­clud­ing the T&T flag promi­nent­ly dis­played, and a sur­prise re­union be­tween Prof Cum­mings and her for­mer Bish­op Anstey High School class­mate Denyse God­dard.

Pro­fes­sor Cum­mings was al­so con­grat­u­lat­ed by T&T’s Con­sul Gen­er­al to New York An­dre Laveau. The pro­ceed­ings were presided over by Trinida­di­an-Amer­i­can judge Wavny Tou­s­saint, who brought fes­tive spir­it to the oc­ca­sion by wear­ing a small but vi­brant red Car­ni­val head­piece.

Prof Cum­mings, re­gard­ed as a trail­blaz­er in her field, has been hailed as “the An­gela Davis of AI, with a voice like Bar­bara Jor­dan,” ac­cord­ing to the di­rec­tor of the Ju­di­cial Col­lege of Illi­nois. On the morn­ing of the Brook­lyn cel­e­bra­tion, af­ter de­liv­er­ing a ses­sion to 70 judges in DeKalb Coun­ty at North­ern Illi­nois Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege of Law on the top­ic From Da­ta Trau­ma to Da­ta Jus­tice, a vet­er­an fe­male judge told her: “If I can get you to speak to every child in Amer­i­ca, I know my work has been done.”

A crim­i­nol­o­gist, crim­i­nal psy­chol­o­gist, AI ethi­cist, da­ta ac­tivist, and moth­er, Prof Cum­mings en­tered the world of ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence af­ter be­gin­ning her ca­reer in crim­i­nol­o­gy. She has since es­tab­lished her­self as an in­flu­en­tial voice in the glob­al AI dis­course. She cur­rent­ly serves as Pro­fes­sor of Prac­tice in Da­ta Sci­ence and AI Ethics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Vir­ginia.

She cred­its her great­est achieve­ments and in­spi­ra­tion to her daugh­ter, Yja, and ex­press­es deep grat­i­tude to her par­ents, Roslyn Khan-Cum­mings and Ever­ald “Gal­ly” Cum­mings, as well as her grand­moth­er El­sa Khan.

Among her ear­li­er ho­n­ours, Pro­fes­sor Cum­mings re­ceived a procla­ma­tion at New York City Hall 20 years ago, an ex­pe­ri­ence she de­scribes as “an un­for­get­table ho­n­our” that fu­eled her com­mit­ment to shap­ing the fu­ture of AI.

For her sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions, Pro­fes­sor Cum­mings was pre­sent­ed with the Caribbean Amer­i­can Lead­er­ship Award by the Kings Coun­ty Supreme Court and re­ceived a sec­ond procla­ma­tion from Kings Coun­ty Dis­trict At­tor­ney Er­ic Gon­za­lez.

Dig­ni­taries at­tend­ing the cer­e­mo­ny in­clud­ed Rowan D Wil­son, Chief Judge of New York State; Nor­man St George, First Deputy Chief Ad­min­is­tra­tive Judge; Matthew D’Emic, Ad­min­is­tra­tive Judge for Crim­i­nal Mat­ters; Ge­nine D Ed­wards, Ad­min­is­tra­tive Judge, Civ­il Term, Kings Coun­ty Supreme Court; De­na E Dou­glas, co-chair of the Caribbean Her­itage Month Com­mit­tee; Wavny Tou­s­saint, Pre­sid­ing Jus­tice, Ap­pel­late Term; Rhon­da Tom­lin­son, Judge, NY State Court of Claims; Mil­ton Tin­gling, New York Coun­ty Clerk; for­mer Supreme Court Jus­tice Tony Wal­ters, di­rec­tor of the NY State Uni­fied Court Sys­tem; Leonard Stew­art, esq, Prin­ci­pal Law Clerk to Jus­tice Tou­s­saint; and Lo­la Wa­ter­man, Judge, NYC Civ­il Court, Kings Coun­ty.

Ex­press­ing grat­i­tude, Pro­fes­sor Cum­mings said: “This recog­ni­tion af­firms the pow­er of jus­tice, eq­ui­ty, and cul­tur­al lega­cy in shap­ing the fu­ture.”

In her ac­cep­tance speech, she re­flect­ed: “This award is not mine alone. It be­longs to every Caribbean woman who speaks truth in rooms nev­er meant to hear her.

“To every Caribbean thinker who knows that bor­ders are not bound­aries to imag­i­na­tion but in­vi­ta­tions to reimag­ine what’s pos­si­ble. Caribbean bril­liance be­longs every­where de­ci­sions are made. My work in AI is ground­ed in one un­wa­ver­ing truth: Our nar­ra­tives mat­ter. The fu­ture should not mere­ly in­clude us. The fu­ture must be shaped by us.”

Dur­ing June, Pro­fes­sor Cum­mings was al­so recog­nised with the Women in AI Sum­mit and Awards North Amer­i­ca 2025 award, fur­ther ce­ment­ing her role as a lead­ing voice in tech­nol­o­gy and ethics.