Carolyn Allison Rodrigues-Birkett (born September 16 1973) is a Guyanese

Guyana

Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...

 politician who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs since April 2008.

Rodrigues, an Amerindian, was born in Moruca, Barima-Waini Region

Barima-Waini

Barima-Waini is a region of Essequibo, Guyana, a territory in dispute by Guyana and Venezuela, located in the northwest of the country. It covers an area of 20,339 km²...

. After attending a private school in Georgetown

Georgetown, Guyana

Georgetown, estimated population 239,227 , is the capital and largest city of Guyana, located in the Demerara-Mahaica region. It is situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the mouth of the Demerara River and it was nicknamed 'Garden City of the Caribbean.' Georgetown is located at . The city serves...

, she received a scholarship for Amerindians and went to study business administration at the University of Regina

University of Regina

The University of Regina is a public research university located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1911 as a private denominational high school of the Methodist Church of Canada, it began an association with the University of Saskatchewan as a junior college in 1925, and was disaffiliated...

 in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and returned to Guyana in 1993. She was required by her scholarship to work for Amerindian communities, and as a result she left the lumber company where she worked and instead went to work for the Inter-American Development Bank

Inter-American Development Bank

The Inter-American Development Bank is the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean...

's Social Impact Amelioration Programme (SIMAP) in Guyana, although this meant 65% less pay. She became Coordinator of SIMAP's Amerindian Projects Programme, holding that post until 2001, when went to study in social work at the University of Guyana

University of Guyana

The University of Guyana, in Georgetown, Guyana is a public university established in 1963 by the Guyanese government.-History:Cheddi Jagan, then Premier of British Guiana considered that the University of the West Indies, to which his government had contributed since 1948, was not meeting the...

.

Rodrigues was appointed to the Cabinet as Minister of Amerindian Affairs in April 2001. Following the 2006 general election, she was reappointed as Minister of Amerindian Affairs and sworn in on September 4, 2006 After seven years as Minister of Amerindian Affairs, she was appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs on April 9, 2008, replacing Rudy Insanally. She was sworn in on April 10.