Ivy Dumont

Dame Ivy Leona Dumont, born October 2, 1930, spent more than two decades as a Bahamian educator before moving into public life, later becoming the seventh Governor-General of the Bahamas from 2002 to 2005 and the first woman to hold that office. She completed teacher training in 1951 and began as a classroom teacher, rising through head teacher, education officer and deputy director of education over roughly 21 years in the school system. She kept building her own qualifications while teaching, studying in the United States on a Fulbright scholarship from 1962 to 1963 and earning a bachelor's degree in education from the University of Miami in 1970, before leaving the school system for other government roles in the mid 1970s.