Senator Dr. the Honourable Esther R. Byer Suckoo holds responsibility for the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and was re-appointed to this portfolio on February 28, 2013, this time with the addition of Human Resource Development.
She was born in Barbados on September 10, 1968, and educated at the St. Luke’s Primary School. After successfully completing the Barbados Secondary Schools’ Entrance Examination, she attended Queen’s College, where she not only did well academically, but was also a well-rounded student, eventually becoming the Deputy Head Girl.
She won a Government Exhibition in 1987 and proceeded to the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies, where she pursued medical studies. She qualified as a medical doctor in 1993. Dr. Byer Suckoo returned to Barbados and worked at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the island’s premier medical institution, for the next three years.
In January 1997, she established the Ellerton Medical Centre in her hometown, where she was the sole operator, until she was elected as the Member of Parliament for the St. George South constituency in the January 15, 2008, general elections.
Her desire to provide health care to the less fortunate in the Third World moved her to visit Malawi, where she worked as a short-term medical missionary with Uplift International in 2001. She did a similar stint in Uganda in 2005.
Dr. Byer Suckoo’s interests include hiking, travelling, reading and participating in medical missions and youth and human resource development initiatives. She is a former Cub Scout and Youth Group Leader; a Sunday School and Bible School Teacher; and Lecturer in Pharmacology at the Barbados Community College.
She is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP). She served the latter as General Secretary and Vice President. Dr. Byer Suckoo is the mother of three boys.