CANIH has been a wonderful addition to the community and culture at NIH and was the brain-child of Althea Grey-McKenzie, a former NIH contractor, a current Officer of CANIH and a board member of the Caribbean-American Chamber of Commerce in the metro area. Since the issuance of the Proclamation by President Bush in 2006, celebrating June as National Caribbean-American Heritage Month, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) staff of Caribbean and American background, worked to develop the group now known as the Caribbean Association at NIH (CANIH) as an immediate response to building awareness of Caribbean Heritage and culture at NIH and its surrounding neighborhoods. In 2007 CANIH became a recognized Special-Emphasis Program at NIH overseen by The Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity Management (OEODM), that answered directly to The Office of the Director and is now an ERG (Employee Resource Group) an initiative of the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.