Janelle Chanona made a name for herself in 1999 when she started working as a reporter, news director and anchor with Great Belize Productions, Channel 5. Educated as a broadcast journalist at Nottingham Trent University, in Nottingham, UK, Chanona moved on to freelance consulting when the station sold in 2008, contributing her documentaries and feature articles to both national and international media outlets. In January 2014 she made another career change, this time to advocacy. For the past nine years she has led the team at the NGO Oceana, advocating for national policies to increase abundance in fisheries, protect marine based livelihoods and promote meaningful consultation to further informed decision making. Since March 2022, Janelle has represented non-governmental organizations in Belize’s Senate. She is married to husband Warren and goes lionfish hunting whenever she can.

Amanda Acosta began her professional career at the University of Belize (UB) as a lecturer within the Science Department. In December 2008, Acosta moved on to Belize Audubon Society. She is currently the Executive Director, serving in this capacity since November 2010. Acosta has spent the past thirteen years strengthening BAS, building strong collaborations with partners, and building a resilient organization to ultimately achieve BAS’ tagline of “balancing people and the environment”.

Acosta grew up in Belize City. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from College of Charleston and a Master of Science from Nova Southeastern University in Florida. Amanda has a daughter and son.

Saidy Godette is a holder of a Bachelor's in History and Geography and a Master's in Education and Management from The University of the West Indies. Owner of The Art Shack Belize, an Art Gallery, Marketing and Design Company in Belmopan. Saidy is currently an adjunct lecturer at Galen University and a frequent writer of marketing and business articles for TAS Belize. In 2020 she collaborated with several artists, visual and lyrical, from across the country. This was the beginning of an art gallery in Belmopan, The Art Shack Belize. The gallery has evolved into a home for numerous Belizean/local products. Its mission is to support and contribute to the community of artists and crafters by offering quality art pieces, and quality supplies to accommodate customer needs; hosting and supporting shows, classes and contests; and promoting Belize as an artist's oasis and destination.

Founder of Raquel-Art School in Belmopan, Raquel has a goal to reach the youth and young adults of her community through art programmes. These programmes include mentorship workshops that focus on violence in the community, climate change and our environment, mental health, agriculture and empowerment. Work within her art school also includes economically empowering women through art by partnering with nearby artisans to inspire young female adults to become self sustained entrepreneurs in the industry of handicrafts and creative arts.

Jaylan Craig is the founder and director of Modern Dance Movement (MDM), located in Belize City. MDM currently has close to 80 dancers enrolled for weekly dance training in ballet and the Graham modern technique. Dancers' progress is showcased in annual recitals and Christmas performances. Jaylan completed the Two-Year Certificate Program at the Martha Graham School in New York City, where she excelled in the Professional and Advanced levels while working as the school's coordinator for the Young Artists Program. Prior to her professional dance training in New York, Jaylan was a member of the Belize National Dance Company and was able to represent Belize abroad in CARIFESTA XII and in Cuba at Danza Contemporánea de Cuba. At three years old, Jaylan began dancing as one of the first students at Vista Dance Studio, founded and directed by Belizean dance legend Sistie Fairweather-Harmes.

Maria Antonieta Smith is a dancer and choreographer from Brazil with 40 years international dance experience. Mrs. Smith has studied in New York at several schools including The Ailey Studio, Steps on Broadway and Luigi's Jazz Dance Center, in Japan at the Kyoryukan Theater and dance School as well as Canada at the Harbour Dance Center in Vancouver.

She and has taught numerous professional and amateur dance students throughout her lifetime career. She founded her own dance troupe called “STEPPIN'OUT”, which toured in Japan, Brazil and Canada for 13 years. After living and teaching dance in Japan for 30 years, Mrs Smith now lives happily in beautiful Belize and hopes to share her vast international dance experience and inspire many children, young people and adults to make dance a part of their lives.

Alexander Evans is a Belizean Composer/Arranger, Music Educator, and multi-instrumentalist. He holds a BA in Musical Arts (Special) from UWI St. Augustine, where he earned First Class Honors, the Newman Alexander Award for the top Music student, and the Beryl McBurnie Award for most outstanding overall student. Alexander’s music has won 7 national competitions across 3 different countries, and he has performed in several countries, including: Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, Mexico, and the USA. In 2022, Evans became a judge on Channel 5’s Karaoke TV. He is currently working as a steel pan soloist who is available for hire, and he hopes to continue to work to enhance Belize’s cultural/artistic eco-system

Nicole Craig is the Belizean who has always been passionate about protecting and conserving her country’s natural resources. She has served as the country coordinator for Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Initiative for the past 5 years. In this role, she collects and compiles national reef monitoring data and helps to create the Mesoamerican Reef Report Cards. She is also a key collaborator in multiple projects such as the Restoring Herbivory and Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease response efforts that both address major threats to our reef. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Marine Biology from the University of West Florida in 2010 and a Master’s Degree in Biology from Miami University (Oxford, OH) in 2017.

Scientific contributions aside, Nicole also increases conservation awareness and education through her music. Nicole is singer, songwriter and musician who has written conservation focused music for multiple projects such as the theme song ‘Raise My Voice’ for Belize’s first animated film Tecuani and the Duende, the theme song for Belize’s Reef Week ‘Fi All A We’ and ‘One Climate, One Caribbean’ commissioned by the EU GCCA+ programme.

Elizabeth is originally from Italy and the UK. She has a Masters in International Humanitarian Action, a BA in Languages and International Communications and 15 years experience working in international development with civil society, United Nations and the European Union Delegations. After spending most of her career living and working in countries in Africa and the Middle East, she arrived in lovely Belize in April 2022 where she works for the EU where she is the focal person for human rights, civil society, gender equality, health, communications and culture. Elizabeth is passionate about the promotion of culture and creativity. She also likes to “engineer” exciting events to share European culture such as the EU in the Park and European film festivals. She loves to dance while her husband, who is originally from Liberia, loves to sing.

Elizabeth will be the observer on the jury on behalf of the EU.