Most doctoral students don’t have years of experience leading a nation. But Andrew Holness, Jamaica’s prime minister, is an exception. 

On April 30, Holness received his doctorate degree in law and policy from Northeastern, marking the culmination of his efforts to balance ambition with duty. He previously earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of the West Indies in Jamaica.

Initially elected in 2011, Holness has steered his country through economic reforms, natural disasters, a reduction in violent crime and the COVID-19 pandemic. He has also been at the forefront of efforts to fight the nation’s illicit gun supply crisis.

For his doctoral thesis, Holness studied the impact of United States gun laws on Jamaica’s pervasive illicit firearms trafficking.

In an interview with Northeastern Global News, or NGN, Holness said that decades ago, guns entering Jamaica often came from postwar stockpiles in Central and South America, Russia and the U.S. Today, however, the vast majority of the country’s illegal firearms comes from the U.S. He pointed to major source regions, including Miami, Atlanta, Texas and New York, all of which have demographics that closely align with the Caribbean diaspora. According to his research, these diaspora connections play a significant role in facilitating the flow of illicit guns into Jamaica.

“Policymaking is always a competitive endeavor. But throughout my coursework, I realized that not all problems can be solved through competition,” Holness told NGN. “Some problems can be solved through cooperation, by collaborating and bringing people together, by fusing the best ideas together. It all depends on the approaches you take to the problem. That for me was a very profound insight from the program.”

A member of the center-right Jamaica Labour Party, Holness was elected at age 39, making him Jamaica’s youngest-ever prime minister. After a two-month initial term, he returned to office in 2016 and has since led the country through successive elections, including a landslide victory in 2020. 

Before entering politics, he served as executive director of the nonprofit Voluntary Organization for the Upliftment of Children, where his work focused on improving social and educational opportunities for Jamaican youth, an early sign of the public service path he would later pursue.

As prime minister, Holness has celebrated extraordinary progress in fighting the homicide crisis in Jamaica. The country recently recorded a 35% drop in its monthly homicide rate from February 2024, marking its lowest monthly murder rate in 25 years, and has seen consistent decreases in serious crime. 

“The truth is that we have dramatically improved our detection, interdiction and recovery of illegal firearms,” Holness told NGN. “But the flow is so substantial that, regardless of what we are able to do, we would still need, on the U.S. side, further measures to stem the flow.”

Beyond addressing gun violence, Holness has spearheaded economic reforms by streamlining public bureaucracy and mobilizing over $500 million in private investment through public-private partnerships. He has prioritized infrastructure modernization with historic projects like the 147-kilometer road upgrade between Port Antonio and Kingston. 

He has also emerged as a vocal advocate for transitioning Jamaica into a republic, aiming to replace the British monarch with a Jamaican head of state. 

In the NGN interview, Holness reflected on his choice to pursue his doctorate at Northeastern.

“Northeastern offered a program that I found to be very much tailored to my time and my interests,” he said. “The faculty was very understanding of my unique position and facilitated, without depriving me of the necessary rigor, my participation in a program that would allow me to bring my experience to a problem I am interested in. They gave me the exposure to the necessary expertise and helped create a community of learners that would enhance my own experience.”