Our Michelle
Michelle is our Office Manager/Receptionist and has been with us now for nearly a quarter of a century. She joined our team in 2001 along with Marcel (now retired) and Owen (now with the Barbados Water Authority) and is the first voice you generally will hear on calling the office.
Always pleasant and professional, Michelle brings a warm, personal touch to every interaction with our patients. She knows each one individually and can instantly recall any detail you require.
Schooling
Michelle's early schooling was at Hindsbury Primary, followed by the Christ Church Foundation School for her secondary education.
Like many a young girl dreaming of a glamorous life, Michelle had notions of becoming an air hostess, flying the world and seeing exotic places like Timbuktu and China. Luckily she woke up and decided to study business at the Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic.
Work Experience
Fresh from the SJPP, Michelle did a job attachment at the Caribean News Agency (CANA), the successor to the Reuters Caribbean Service which was a news network created by media people in the Caribbean in 1975. It was here that she developed a strong passion for secretarial work. This led her to enroll at the Barbados Community College where she ultimately gained the Private Secretary Diploma. She has worked as a secretary for the last 26 years of her life (as of year 2024). Of those 26 years, 23 have been at Shekinah Medical Centre where she now is in total control of the entire office and manages everything from patient bookings, scheduling surgeries, stock taking, office finances and anything else that matters.
Hobbies
But Michelle is not all work and no play. When work is done, it's often time for a classic detective novel (people still do that?), watching movies and generally having fun. For 2024 she has embarked on two new adventures.
Having studiously avoided the sea for most of her life, she is now learning to swim and is loving it. A new goal for this year (2024) is also to learn a new language, so if when you next come to the office she greets you in fluent Mandarin, well.... you've been warned!
She, along with her mum and dad, are also keen (umm...well, nearly keen) hikers. You're very likely to find her on the odd weekend, hiking up to Culpepper Island off the east coast of Barbados, or sliding and slipping down a steep cliff in St John with a bunch of walking crazies. That's Michelle.
Trevor is the General Surgeon at Shekinah Medical Centre which he co-directs and co-owns along with his wife, Agatha, our Obstetrician-Gynecologist.
Schooling
Unashamedly old-school, Trevor hails from a long line of proud Combermerians. His primary education was gained at St Giles school under mean and tough teachers like Mr Morris ("the Mojic"), Dame Avisene Carrington, Mr Greenidge ("the Grinner"). These were people whose entire souls were bound up in teaching, not only subjects, but life's values. And they did not spare the rod.
With a solid primary education under his belt, Trevor entered Combermere (then at Waterford) in 1959 under Major Noot. Those days at Combermere were the best of his young life. Educators like Charlie ("Pili") Pilgrim (History), Harry Sealy (English), Arthur Sealy (Latin), "Bomber" Wickham, Miss Blackett (both Spanish) and many others infused a love of learning that lasts to this day, and helped him secure the very first Barbados Scholarship from Combernere.
But school wasn't just books. Trevor was an avid debater. He also joined the No 3 Cadet Corp and in time rose to the rank of Senior Cadet Under Officer, proudly displaying his hard won cross-arms on parade days. School was so much fun that when time came for him to leave (after gaining his Scholarship), he pleaded with the then Headmaster (Vere "Bumpy" Moore) to stay another year. His request was granted and he spent the time studying Physics, Biology and Chemistry. All these were new to him, having previously been a Language/Arts student. But with Medicine in his sights, they were required reading.
University
After regretfully leaving school, Trevor did a year of Pre-med studies at Cave Hill and then proceeded to UWI, Mona, Jamaica for Medicine - the class of 1974. The five years of Medicine were tough, interesting and fun all rolled into one. The beauty of the Mona campus with the mountains in the background, the allure of a new environment and the inescapable beat of reggae (Bob Marley, Toots and the Maytals, Ernie Smith) were a powerful rival to sleepy lectures in Anatomy and Physiology. But failure was not an option and he made it through.
Graduation was followed by a return home to internship at the QEH. And real medicine. Hard days. Long nights. Followed by more hard days. But underneath it all was the joy of doing medicine. Days of seeing sick people enter hospital and leaving cured. Days of learning from medicine men like Mr Frank Ward, Irvine Smith, "Granny" Rotchel, and seeing theory become practice.
Zambia
But internship was hard. Real hard. So hard that at the end, Trevor along with five colleagues decided to take a break and see the world. They saw an advertisement for doctors wanted in Zambia, and took the plunge. It was another massive experience. Tropical medicine at its best (and worse).
Post-graduate Studies
After a year or to in Zambia, it was time to return home. At first undecided, Trevor eventually settled on Surgery and after working a number of years in Surgery at the QEH went off to the UK where he gained his Fellowship in Surgery in Edinburgh.
After the Fellowship program it was back home to QEH as a Registrar in Surgery. Part of this was a six-month stint in Grenada after the Maurice Bishop affair.
Private Practice
But all things come to an end and in time Trevor decided to leave the Queen Elizabeth Hospital to set up his practice at Shekinah Medical Centre with surgical privileges at the then newly commissioned Bayview Hospital. This continues to the present time.
Hobbies and other things
Always fascinated by electronics, Trevor is a self taught programmer. He started programming in the bad old days of DOS and Microsoft Quick-Basic, briefly played with COBOL and assembly language, and then settled on Microsoft Visual Basic / Studio. After failing to find suitable office software, he wrote his own office management suite, which continues after several revisions, to the present. However he now prefers open source and has left the Microsoft/Windows world for Linux.
A central part of Trevor's existence is Christianity and a powerful belief in God. His entire life has been spent in and around the Wesleyan Holiness Church where he has taught Sunday School, played in the musical band (clarinet, saxophone and a terrible trumpet), written countless plays and skits and done everything in between.
He also rides, well, used to ride, a mean 650 Ninja Kawasaki sports bike. But common sense eventually prevailed and there came the time when he felt it was time to quit while still alive and kicking.
One thing he will never give up is his morning walks, weekend hikes all over Barbados, and long swims with his one and only at Browne's beach, one of the loveliest beaches in the world.
Everybody calls her Schols. Her full name is Agatha Jeanne Cynthia Scholar-Shepherd, which is why we need something short like "Schols". She is the Obstetrician-Gynecologist at Shekinah Medical Centre and wife of Trevor.
Schooling
Agatha is St Lucian by birth and spent her early years in Micoud, but moved and schooled in Castries the capital when her father joined the Police Force. Her father, a policeman, was stationed in Aruba during the later part of the 2nd World war, but was recommissioned to inaugurate The Regional police Training school at the Morne, St. Lucia.
The training school was re located to Barbados during her primary school years and so she lived in Barbados, where her father was the Chief Training Inspector at the then Seawell Police Training Centre. During her 13th year, her father was recalled to St Lucia to become the first local Chief of Police. She returned home to finish her secondary schooling. Her science preference for Botany, Chemistry and Physics were only taught at St Mary's College, an all boys school, so there she completed her secondary education. The experience of being the only girl in 6th form in an all male school was enjoyable and positive. She eventually secured a Police Scholarship ( the only one ever given) to do Medicine at Mona, Jamaica.
University
Agatha joined the class of 1974 at UWI, Mona to study Medicine. Campus was an exhilarating experience, full of fun and laughter. Schols was soon a member of clubs like the Caving Club, Judo club and riding Club. She enjoyed the camaraderie of the boys during competitions, and bested them sometimes in darts, chess and table tennis. Playing cricket with the boys in the Papine basin, she learned to throw a mean fast ball.
During the day, especially in the early morning, you'd often find her astride a huge monster of a horse called Geronimo. An avid member of the riding club, she was often seen galloping furiously around Campus, hair flying in the wind. In those days she was much more interested in horses than Bajan men. Pity.
Internship
Along with other members of the class of '74, Agatha started internship at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, seeing medical theory spring to life on the wards of QEH under practitioners like the late Drs. Rochell and George Clarke This ignited her passion for Obstetrics and Gynecology, a passion that burns to this day.
Zambia
She was one of a group of five doctors that responded to an advertisement to join the medical team at the University Hospital in Lusaka, Zambia in
1975, after finishing a grueling internship. Working mainly in the Medical section of the Hospital, she was able to see, first hand, classical tropical conditions that one rarely sees in
the Caribbean such as malaria and sleeping sickness. Those days in Zambia coincided with the desperate fight for freedom in apartheid South Africa. It was also a time to sample the
wonders of Zambia's safaris and wild life parks during breaks from the rigors of hospital work.
Queen Elizabeth Hospital
After the stint in Zambia it was back to QEH. After a brief time in Accident and Emergency, it was back to Obstetrics and Gynecology under the late Yvonne
Rotchell and a Diploma in the subject. Plus marriage to Trevor. In those days work at QEH was hard, but full of fun. There were great nurses like Sister Clarke, excellent
teachers in their own way. There were also great people in the lab like the late Dr Garriques, and Dr Patsy Prussia. All in all, work was a pleasure. Hard and long, but
fun.
Private Practice
Like everything in life, QEH was a season that came to an end. In 1988 Agatha started her own practice, at first renting a space in Ars Medicae, Bellville,
while Shekinah Medical Centre was in construction. She was joined in 1989 by her husband, Trevor, where they now manage a joint practice of Surgery and Obstetrics &
Gynaecology.
Hobbies
Agatha is a born again Christian. She spent her formative years as a member for First Baptist Church in St Lucia and in Barbados, but changed to the Wesleyan Church when she became Mrs. Shepherd. She was always heavily involved at Carringtons Wesleyan Holiness Church and played many roles, often in the Youth and Women's departments. She also played clarinet for a time with the church band.
Her main passion however was working with the ladies and heading that department. This often took her around the island as well as the other islands, taking part in rallies and lecturing on health and women's issues. She was also a member of the church choir and still helps out when needed.
Schols is an avid gardener, a mean cook and a doting grandmother. She's also one of the few people in Barbados that can swim the entire length of Brown's beach. This is always done with Trevor on the seaward side - just in case the odd shark comes along. She is an advanced open water diver, having been certified by the late David Young of Underwater Barbados. Usually calm, she will resolutely kill anything that flies, crawls or threatens to jump on you.