Out Of Politics, Diase-Coffelt Continues Fight Against Corruption

ST. THOMAS — Soraya Diase-Coffelt has made a name for herself in the political field. Ironically, her notoriety came not during the 2014 campaign season; but after her loss to then-candidate Kenneth Mapp, who subsequently chose Diase-Coffelt as his Attorney General upon securing his governorship.

But as the Virgin Islands know all too well, Diase-Coffelt resigned her position after just two weeks on the job, and at a separate presser detailed why she left, contending that Governor Mapp had broken his promises.

Nonetheless, Coffelt fights on, waging her war against corruption, speaking at various events, including a recent stop at UVI’s Global Institute for Leadership and Management Development’s class and the graduation ceremony, where she spoke on the topics of “Leaders Bringing Transparency to Government”, and “Leaders Do Not Make Excuses- They Take Responsibility and Act”.

“I spoke about the global movement to bring transparency to governments all around the world and then brought it home to the Virgin Islands,” Coffelt told The Consortium in an email. “In answering the question as to what we can do locally to fight corruption and bring transparency to government, I encouraged the students to educate themselves and the public on the negative effects of corruption in government and the importance of transparency; continue training leaders on this issue; and study what other jurisdictions are doing to promote transparency and adopt what would be good for us.”

Asked if she would consider a gubernatorial bid in the next three and a half years, Diase-Coffelt would only say that her quest to see the territory become better through transparency would continue.

“I just continue to do what I believe very sincerely and profoundly that God is leading me to do, [which is] continue to speak out about transparency and anti-corruption issues,” Diase-Coffelt said. “And I hope to be writing more on that because I’ve been reading up on it and I’m becoming an expert on transparency and anti-corruption.”

Diase-Coffelt, a widow, said recent travels have made her more acquainted with what she calls a “worldwide movement” against corruption, as people all over the globe call for transparency in government.

“So teaching these young students about becoming leaders, and how it’s up to them now to bring transparency in government and demand that from our leaders is important,” Diase-Coffelt went on. “Because we’re a democracy, we need to demand that from our leaders and our leaders need to comply. And transparency is critical because it’s a force against corruption — they go hand-in-hand.”

Aside from public speaking, Diase-Coffelt has been busy at the helm of other efforts like publishing children’s books — including an Amazon bestseller released last year, titled, “It’s Not About You, Mr. Santa Claus”.

The multifaceted leader will release two more children’s books later this year in August and another in September. The first will go on sale during Halloween and is titled, “It’s Not About You, Mr. Pumpkin: A Love Letter About the True Meaning of Halloween”. The other book, to be released at Thanksgiving, has been dubbed, “It’s Not About you, Ms. Turkey: A Love Letter About the True Meaning of Thanksgiving”.