Shirley M. Osborne

Shirley Osborne is a writer, social entrepreneur, women’s leadership trainer and public service official who believes passionately in the power of women to affect lives, improve communities and change the world. Her work is focused on women’s empowerment and personal development, on women’s social, political, and economic advancement and her politics on the normalization of women’s leadership in public sector decision-making and policy development. She is a personal development and behavioural enhancement trainer, who works primarily with girls and women, supporting them in designing lives that fulfill them, that support the men, women, and children they love, and that add real value to the world we share. 

In 2006, Shirley founded The Girls’ Education Project in Phoenix, Arizona with the mission statement, Strong, Passionate Girls Becoming Powerful; Compassionate Women. In 2015, she opened a GEP chapter in Montserrat, and in 2016, The Montserrat Women’s Resource Centre to provide services for women and girls, but especially for those experiencing gender-based violence in their homes and relationships.  Shirley was a founding member of the Arizona Girls Roundtable, has been a facilitator with the World Academy for the Future of Women at SIAS University in Zhengzhou, China. 

Throughout the years, she has collaborated with the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus, Fresh Start Women’s Foundation, the Purple Ribbon Council, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and with International Women’s Day organizations globally, among others. As a journalist she has written for publications that include the Montserrat Reporter, MNI Media, the Jamaica Gleaner, Caribbean Life, the Daily News and The Parliamentarian. She has reported on the United Nations General Assembly Special Sessions for Women and the Conventions on the Status of Women and has facilitated and otherwise contributed to discussions for the Anti-Defamation League, UN Women, and MTV’s Fight For Your Rights.

With a group of young girls in Arizona, Shirley researched and compiled, The State of Arizona’s Girls: take note, make change, in 2008. She is the author of, Tolerance is No Virtue: Ignorance, Appreciation, and the Human Story, which critics have compared to the seminal Harrah Arendt book, “The Origins of Totalitarianism”. She has also written Raised by an Island and Your Soul Is Gold: mine it. Shirley is also one of the twenty women selected by Dr. Nancy D. O’Reilly for her book, Leading Women: 20 Influential Women Share Their Secrets to Leadership, Business, and Life (2014).

Most recently, Shirley has been the Speaker of the Montserrat Legislative Assembly, the Chair of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians of the Caribbean, Atlantic and the Americas Region and the Vice Chairperson of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.


Shirley holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Simmons College, Boston, MA. a college with a deeply-cherished history of visionary thinking, social responsibility, and commitment to the advancement and empowerment of women. 


In her other moments, Shirley is an avid sailor, hiker, and traveler who dances often, loves cricket, New York City, and being chef to her friends, and lives for family get-togethers on Montserrat, her Caribbean island home. She enjoys the deserts of Arizona, and is committed to protecting the oceans of the world.