In a ceremony held at The President’s House on Thursday 18 June, 2026, Her Excellency Christine Carla Kangaloo, O.R.T.T., President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago administered the Oath of Office and presented the Instrument of Appointment to Mrs. Joanne Deoraj as Member and Deputy Chairman of the Public Service Commission.
Mrs. Joanne Deoraj is a retired Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Planning and Development.
In 1985, Mrs. Deoraj gained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Sociology with Second Class Honours from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. She went on in 2006 to do a Diploma in International Relations at the Institute of International Relations at St. Augustine where she graduated with a Distinction.
From 1988 to 1992, Mrs. Deoraj was the Coordinator at the Rape Crisis Society of Trinidad and Tobago. She then became a Planning Officer at the Ministry of Labour and Small and Micro Enterprise Development where she rose to be the Senior Planning Officer in 2005. From 2007 to 2009, she worked as the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist in the Programme Management Office Vision 2020 in the Ministry of Planning, Housing and the Environment, and then until 2012 as the Programme Director of the National Transformation Unit.
After acting in a number of senior positions, Mrs. Deoraj eventually became the Deputy Permanent Secretary in 2014 and in October 2015, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Planning and Development.
Having retired in 2023, Mrs. Deoraj acted as a Development Consultant for the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries. She is a member of the Housing Development Corporation and Chairman of the Asset Management Company Limited. In the past, she has served in a number of positions including as a Director of the Caribbean Development Bank, a member of the Cabinet Appointed Committee of Scholarships, and a member of the Human Rights and Advocacy Sub-Committee of the National Aids Coordinating Committee.
Mrs. Deoraj is the Auditor for the Marriage Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Port of Spain and an active member of the St. Joseph Roman Catholic Parish.
