Billie Miller

Dame Billie Miller is a Barbadian lawyer, politician, and former deputy prime minister. She is currently the Ambassador at-large for Barbados in the administration of Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley. She was re-elected member of parliament for the city of Bridgetown seven times and was appointed senior minister in May 2003, retaining the portfolios of foreign affairs and foreign trade. She was the first woman to sit on the cabinet of Barbados. Over the years, her ministerial portfolios have included health and national Insurance (1976-1981), education (1981-1985), culture (1985), senator and leader of opposition business (1986-1991), deputy leader of the opposition (1993-1994), deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, foreign trade and international business with the responsibility of leader of the House of Assembly (1994), foreign affairs, tourism and international transport (1995), and foreign affairs and foreign trade (1999-2008).

At the international level, Dame Billie Miller was the coordinator of CARICOM ministerial spokespersons with responsibility for external trade negotiations. At the national level, she is a member of the Barbados Family Planning Association, the Barbados National Trust and the Barbados Museum and Historical Society.

In the past, she has served as chairwoman of the NGO Planning Committee for the International Conference on Population and Development, president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation for the Western Hemisphere Region, member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, member of the United Nations Population Fund’s Advisory Panel for Activities Concerning Women, and chairwoman of the Inter-American Development Bank’s Advisory Council on Women in Development. Dame Billie Miller was selected as the laureate for the United Nations Population Award in 2008, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the awareness of women’s and population issues. She attended Queen’s College in Barbados and King’s College, Durham University, and the Council of Legal Education in England. 

 

Miller is on leave from the Dialogue until the end of her term.