Dr Tasha Ebanks Garcia joined the Cayman Islands Government (CIG) civil service in 2013 as a Deputy Chief Officer in the Ministry of Education, Employment and Gender Affairs and in 2017 was recruited by the Office of the Deputy Governor (Strategic Reforms Implementation Unit) to serve as the Deputy Chief Advisor. Formally trained to the doctorate level in psychology with a focus on marriage and family therapy, Dr Ebanks Garcia says that while she is not using her academic qualifications as they are traditionally intended, she draws heavily on her formal training as she carries out her work as a policy officer and as a facilitator of change.

Having worked across a range of policy areas including employment, tertiary education strategy, child safeguarding, adoptions, procurement and prisons monitoring she has had the opportunity to provide advice and deliver internal consultancy services to Ministries across the Government. She was instrumental in developing the Cayman Islands Government business case and project management methodology, tools and templates, has facilitated the delivery of training and development in those areas and holds internationally recognised professional certifications in those specialties. 

Early in her career Dr Ebanks Garcia was a host for Cayman 27’s Daybreak and later focused on national issues as the host and producer for Cayman 27’s live television talk show “Let’s Talk to the Experts”. A former therapist at the Wellness Centre, Dr. Ebanks Garcia worked with at-risk youth facilitating the Passport2Success programme while balancing a client caseload that primarily focused on children and families.

Most recently she led the work to develop and operationalise the Travel Cayman Programme which utilises innovative technology and enhanced safety protocols to enable travel into the Cayman Islands during COVID-19.