Kenneth Mapp

Kenneth Ezra Mapp (born November 2, 1955) is an U.S. Virgin Islands retired politician who served as the eighth elected Governor of the United States Virgin Islands, from 2015 to 2019. He is registered Republican, but ran as an independent. A former three-term Virgin Islands Senator, Mapp served as the Lieutenant Governor of the United States Virgin Islands from 1995 until 1999. Mapp was an independent candidate for Governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2006 and 2010, but was defeated both times by Democrat John de Jongh. He ran in the 2014 gubernatorial election for Governor of the United States Virgin Islands, defeating Donna Christian-Christensen, the longtime Delegate to Congress, in a run-off. Mapp ran for a second term in 2018, but was defeated in the runoff election by Democrat Albert Bryan. Early life and education Kenneth Ezra Mapp was born on November 2, 1955, in Brooklyn, New York, to Al Mapp and Vashti Hewitt Mapp of St. Croix. He was one of four siblings. Mapp moved to Saint Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1961, where he was raised by his maternal grandmother, Almina N. Hewitt, in Estate Rattan. He graduated from St. Croix Central High School in 1973. Mapp has attended New York City Community College of City University of New York and the University of the Virgin Islands, but has not earned a bachelor's degree. After leaving office as lieutenant governor in 1999, however, he completed the six-week Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School (which has no formal educational requirements) and received a master's degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Mapp also completed other fellowships at Harvard University and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.