ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

The Network: Towards Unity For Health (TUFH)

Aricia De Kempeneer, M. Sc., is the Operations and Programming Director for The Network: Towards Unity For Health. She is responsible for managing the annual conferences, virtual regional conferences, TUFH Symposiums and Workshops, TUFH Academies, ISAT, iSTEP, Digital Aspects, Social Media, Newsletter, Communications and Membership. In addition, Aricia is the liaison to the Student Network Organization.

Aricia holds a Masters in Health Education and Promotion from Ghent University and a Bachelor in Midwifery from Erasmus Hogeschool. She works as an independent midwife in Belgium and gives prenatal lessons, prenatal care, and postnatal follow-up.
Prior to The Network: TUFH Aricia worked as a midwife in Gambia, Finland, United Kingdom, and Belgium in low-risk birthing units. She co-founded and was the first president of the Student Network Organization in 2015. She has been attending TUFH annual conferences since 2012.

Rural Wonca

Dr. Pratyush Kumar is a consultant family physician with special interest in diabetes and infectious diseases. He has published many research papers on infectious diseases, diabetes and rural health and presented in many international conferences.

He is passionate about rural health and currently chairs rural health group of South Asia Wonca Rural South Asia (WoRSA), Advisory Board Member – TUFH and Secretary of Rural WONCA.

Cape Peninsula University of Technology

Lizel Hudson is the Work-Integrated Learning and Language Coordinator in the Faculty of Health and Wellness Sciences at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Her research interests include health professions education and in particular knowledge-building in simulated learning environments. Her doctoral studies focused on understanding threshold concepts in professional education. Lizel is a Teaching Advancements at University Programme Fellow where her project focused on smart student engagement and a holistic experience towards student success. Professional affiliations include National Council member of the Southern African Association of Health Educationalists (SAAHE) and Evaluator for the Health Professional Council of South Africa (HPCSA). She loves being outdoors and spending time with her family.

Stellenbosch University

Lindsay-Michelle Meyer has worked in rural health for a number of years as part of the Ukwanda Centre for Rural Health team as coordinator. She taught for 7 years at a primary school before leaving to embark on a journey that led her to the Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, Ukwanda. She was part of the team that established the Ukwanda Rural Clinical School. Through The Stellenbosch University Medical Education Partnership Initiative (SURMEPI), a PEPFAR funded project, she project managed the construction of the Avian Park Learning Centre in Worcester, the development of the Learner Day for learners from schools in the Cape Winelands and Overberg region and exposure of the first-year medical students to the Rural Clinical School. She is passionate about developing people and thus as a qualified teacher and project manager with a Postgraduate degree in Sustainable Development Planning and Management and a current master’s student in Transdisciplinary Health and Development she uses her expertise in Social Sciences to guide the narrative both within the university and related organization. Currently she co-facilities the lecture in Health & Wellness: Health advocacy for the MBChB II students.

University of Cape Town

Dehran’s career has been devoted to public health promotion, particularly among underserved citizens in South Africa. He has broad training in health promotion, public health, and education. He has experience in the following fields: Secondary school educationr; Health promotion Research and Development (the Medical Research Council of South Africa); Project Management (the Paraffin Safety Association of Southern Africa – burn prevention, heath education and policy development); Tertiary Education (senior manager within the Faculty of Health Sciences). He was a project manager on an international study (NIH-funded Fogarty R01 grant), a multi-country Global Youth Tobacco Survey and served for over 8 years as senior project manager and director of research at the Paraffin Safety Association of Southern Africa. He has been in his current position at UCT for the past 10 years.

University of the Western Cape

Luzaan Africa is a Lecturer in the Interprofessional Education Unit located in the Faculty of Community and Health Sciences at the University of the Western Cape. She holds a BSc, MSc, and PhD in Physiotherapy. Her research focuses on opportunities that improve the interprofessional core competencies for students and her
colleagues in the field.

Student Network Organization (SNO)

Ala Khalid is the acting president of SNO. She is a medical graduate from University of Gezira, Sudan. She has been a loyal member of SNO since 2018, last year she was working as acting president for SNO local chapter at her institution and also as international Mentorship coordinator. She’s passionate about Global Health issues, Gender Equity, and Interprofessional Education. Ala enjoys cooking, gardening and photography, she is aspiring to become a global surgeon and a researcher.

The Network: Towards Unity For Health (TUFH)

Nikolaj in the capacity of the Social Media and Conference Manager for The Network: Towards Unity for Health (TUFH). Nikolaj also serves as Education Platform and Social Media Manager for the Social Innovations Journal. He is originally from Philadelphia and based in London.

Stellenbosch University

I am a Professional Nurse and Counsellor by training. Currently I am the Student Support Coordinator at the Rural Clinical School, Worcester, South Africa.

University of the Western Cape

For the past 12 years Ms.Delia Meyer has been working at the School of Nursing, University of the Western Cape as the Clinical Supervisor Manager. During this time she has been directly involved in the Preceptorship Training for Nurses programme as one of the facilitators of this continuing education short course.She is also a member of the School of Nursing Professional Conduct Committee which she IS very passionate about in order to ensure our future nurses has very high professional standards. She is also a member of the STTI(Sigma Theta Tau International) – Alpha Beta Beta chapter which is a International Honor Society Of Nursing which promotes nursing excellence which is applied to her daily role as clinical supervisor manager at School of Nursing -UWC.

University of the Western Cape

I have Bachelor of Arts degree and Masters in Nursing from University of the Western Cape. I have been in the healthcare industry for 19 years and I have extensive experience in medical nursing. My other activities include being involved in community projects and outreaches.

University of the Western Cape

Associate Professor Firdouza Waggie is the Deputy Dean: Clinical and Community Engagement in the Faculty of Community and Health Sciences at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). She is also physiotherapist and has worked in hospital and community settings. Currently she plays an important role in the leadership and strategic decision-making in the faculty. Her portfolio encompasses all matters related to the training on the clinical and community platforms for all the professional programmes in the faculty. She is also responsible for ensuring that the university is anchored in various communities through establishing partnerships and relationships with stakeholders that benefits the the community and the university. She is an advocate for collaborative practice and community engagement in higher education and in the health and social services. She aims to build personal and leadership capacity amongst faculty staff which is needed for sustainability and success in the higher education sector. Her post-graduate supervision and research record reflects in several national and international publications and conference presentations.

University of the Western Cape

Elizabeth Egieyeh is a pharmacist with experience in community, clinical and currently academic practice. Her research focuses on maternal and child health (MCH) in line with SDG targets 3.1, 3.2, 3.7 and 3.8. Her research interests include curriculum integration, review and development; medicine use and care in maternal and women’s health, infant and child health, reproductive and sexual health, adolescent health, primary health care, health systems strengthening and public health. She is interested in the development or implementation of research in these areas.

University of the Western Cape

Delicia Rorich works with the Operations and Programming Director to organize and manage the bi-weekly TUFH Symposiums, Workshops and TUFH Academies. Delicia is an administrative officer at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), Faculty of Community and Health Sciences, in Cape Town, South Africa. Completed Project Management and Business Management certificates and is currently enrolled in the Advanced Diploma in Public Administration programme at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences.

Rural Wonca

Family Physician practicing in Kenya in a rural town. WONCA Rural Seeds Ambassador for the Africa region and Executive Board Member of Rural WONCA in charge of the education portfolio. Passionate about primary health care and rural health.

University of the Western Cape

Lecturer at The University of the Western Cape for the extended Curriculum program in Nursing.

AfriWon / Rural Wonca

University of the Western Cape

University of the Western Cape

Jill is currently the researcher in the Centre for Diversity in Psychological Practice at the University of the Western Cape.