[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 138 (Tuesday, September 29, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2381]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              A TRIBUTE TO DR. TERRY-JAN BLACKETT-BONNETT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS-

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 29, 2009

  Mr. TOWNS. Madam Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Dr. Terry-
Jan Blackett-Bonnett, an active and dedicated medical professional in 
my district.
  From her earliest childhood memories Dr. Terry-Jan Blackett-Bonnett 
entertained the burning desire of someday becoming a practicing 
physician. After earning her high school diploma, she enrolled in St. 
Francis College, where she earned a baccalaureate degree in biology. 
She subsequently enrolled in the American University of the Caribbean 
School of Medicine and completed the requisite coursework in the United 
Kingdom at Eastbourne District Hospital, graduating with a Doctor of 
Medicine degree. A portion of her graduate curriculum included tropical 
medicine, requiring that she spend time working in northeast Mexico, in 
the state of Tamaulipas. During that time, she became adept in the use 
of the Spanish language. Her postgraduate work included research in the 
area of Human Genetics at SUNY Downstate Medical School, where she was 
a contributing writer to medical literature addressing the issue of a Y 
to X gene Translocation in Mother and Daughter.
  After attaining her life long ambition, Dr. Blackett-Bonnett 
completed her residency training in the disciplines of Internal 
Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in 
Newark, New Jersey. Upon completion of residency, she joined the staff 
of Interfaith Medical Center as an attending physician. She later left 
Interfaith as a full time physician to pursue a full-time schedule as 
the Medical Director of the Berean Community and Family Life Center in 
Brooklyn, New York with which she was affiliated since 2002. Dr. 
Blackett-Bonnett is currently on the medical staff of Interfaith 
Medical Center and Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center. She is also a 
professor at ASA Institute of Technology in Brooklyn, New York. She 
currently holds positions on the board of directors of early 
intervention programs in New York and also a contributing member on the 
advisory boards for several health insurance agencies.
  In addition to her involvement in her church community, Dr. Blackett-
Bonnett has been instrumental in organizing health fairs for churches 
and schools in the greater New York area. She has also been a co-
laborer in medical missions to the African countries of Nigeria and 
South Africa, where she provided medical care and education to village 
residents. Dr. Blackett-Bonnett has been a member of Berean Baptist 
Church since 1994. She holds fast to the ideology that ``as the body is 
clad in the cloth and flesh in the skin, and the bones in the flesh and 
the heart in whole so are we, soul and body clad in the goodness of God 
and enclosed.''
  She is the proud mother of Harun Ibrahim and Liam Chukwuemeka, and 
the loving wife of Reverend Doctor Leary Bonnett.
  Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in recognizing Dr. 
Blackett-Bonnett.

                          ____________________