Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Tanisha Ellison, Jamaica’s security attaché at the embassy in Washington, DC, has become the first Jamaican to graduate from the Inter-American Defense College (IADC). She joined 63 senior officials from across the Americas at a ceremony held at the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS) on June 12.

Ellison completed the year-long master’s programme in Inter-American defense and security, designed to prepare diplomats, senior military officers and high-ranking police officials for strategic leadership roles across the hemisphere. Hosted by the United States at Fort Lesley J. McNair, the multilingual programme covers strategic planning, civil-military relations, international affairs, multidimensional security, peace operations and crisis management.

The graduation drew senior regional figures, including OAS Secretary General Albert Ramdin and Jeffrey Bostic, president of Barbados, who delivered the commencement address. He urged graduates to adapt to a more complex security landscape. “Your job is no longer focused on defending territory alone,” he said. “It is to defend clarity, defend facts, and defend the ability of your citizens to distinguish between threat and noise, between adversary and ally.”