Jamaican-American healthcare entrepreneur Dr Patricia Smith is now an author who is ready to share her story of rising to success.

On Monday, February 24, 2025, Dr Smith will publicly launch her memoir, I Persist at the Edward Seaga Suite, at Devon House in the Corporate Area. The event begins with cocktails at 6 pm.

Smith, a native of Spanish Town, St Catherine, faced abandonment, hunger and homelessness, both on the streets of the former capital and later in Long Island, New York, where she would ride the local Long Island Railway at night, and scrounge for odd jobs during the day.

Entering the nursing field, Smith progressed to earning a post-graduate degree. After further twists of fate, including battling depression, she launched Sweet P Nursing Care, through which she eventually found success in the corporate sphere.

I Persist details Smith’s journey from adapting to the gritty streets and the vagaries of life in Spanish Town to the pinnacle of entrepreneurial success.

The University of the Commonwealth Caribbean, as part of its 2024 commencement ceremony, conferred on Smith the honorary degree (Honoris Causa) of Doctor of Behavioural Sciences.