by PsySSA-Web Support | Dec 12, 2023
Suntosh is the chief clinical psychologist for eThekwini (Durban) in the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health. He has spent 15 years working in public mental health, mostly based at King Dinuzulu Hospital. He is affiliated to the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He is also an alumnus of the Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) at Florida International University, Miami, and the Leading in Public Life programme at the University of Cape Town. Suntosh writes with a critical, decolonial, and psychopolitical lens, focusing on the intersectionality of race, sexualities, health, and identities in the post-apartheid era. He is co-author of (South) Africa’s first and only set of Practice Guidelines for Psychology Professionals Working with Sexually and Gender Diverse People and his work on LGBTQ+ affirmative psychology has been published widely, including in the Lancet Global Health. He is part of a research and training team called the African LGBTI+ Human Rights Project, arising from the Sexuality and Gender Division of PsySSA. Suntosh locates his scholar-activism firmly within the practical and material problems he writes about. He is the co-founder of diverse grassroots initiatives, including the KwaZulu-Natal Mental Health Advocacy Group, the Mental Health and Gender Initiative, and Conversations for Change. In 2015, he was named by the Mail and Guardian newspaper as one of the top 200 Young South Africans in Healthcare. In 2022, he was featured in a documentary, When the rainbow is bittersweet. Suntosh is co-editor of the book, Chasing Freedom: Histories, analyses, and voices of student activism in South Africa (CODESRIA Press).
by PsySSA-Web Support | Dec 12, 2023
Prof. Tyrone Pretorius is currently the Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Western Cape. He was previously the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at the University of Pretoria responsible for Teaching and Learning, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Monash South Africa, a campus of Monash University, Australia, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at the University of the Western Cape. Tyrone Pretorius has published extensively in respected national and international journals in the fields of career psychology, coping, stress, statistics and research methodology. In addition, he has authored or co-authored a number of books, monographs and chapters in books. His current research focuses largely on protective factors that promote positive mental health. He has served on the editorial team of the South African Journal of Psychology since 2010.
by PsySSA-Web Support | Dec 12, 2023
Ashley van Niekerk is a professor at the University of South Africa’s (Unisa) Institute for Social and Health Sciences and the Interim Director of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC)-Unisa Masculinity and Health Research Unit. Ashley was previously the Deputy Director of the SAMRC-Unisa Violence, Injury and Peace Research Unit (2016-2020), a Professor Extraordinarius with the Institute for Social and Health Sciences (2010-2020) and an Adjunct Professor (Research) with Monash University’s Monash Injury Research Institute (2012-2016). He is a member of the Academy of Sciences in South Africa. Ashley has a PhD (Social Medicine, 2007) from the Karolinska Institutet and a M. Psych (Clinical Psychology, 1996) from the University of the Western Cape. His research portfolio is embedded in critical socio-psychological, public health and social justice understandings of the multi-layered nature of injury, its causation, and prevention, with a longstanding focus on burns and child safety. He has been involved in the development of national evidence-based injury and violence prevention policy initiatives, co-leading an Integrated Strategic Framework for the Prevention of Injury and Violence in South Africa (2012-2016), and leading provincial strategies for the prevention of fires (in 2014-2015) and the promotion of water safety (in 2017-2018). Ashley was appointed by the Ministry of Health to its National Health Research Committee (2013-2017), by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention as a technical advisor (2023-current) and was previously on the Burns and Scalds WHO Expert Group for the World Report on Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention for 2007-2009. He is an associate editor of the South African Journal of Psychology (2023-current), an associate editor of Injury Prevention (2018-current), and a former editor-in-chief of African Safety Promotion: A Journal of Injury and Violence Prevention (until 2022, recently renamed Social and Health Sciences).
by PsySSA-Web Support | Dec 12, 2023
Jacobus Gideon Maree is an educational psychologist and a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Pretoria. He holds three doctoral degrees and has received multiple awards and has a B1 rating from the National Research Foundation. A fellow of PsySSA and the IAAP and a member of the Board of Directors of the IAAP (Division 16), Prof. Maree is the sole African representative attached to the UNESCO Chair on Lifelong Guidance and Counseling and the UNESCO University Network and Twinning Chair. He read keynote papers at multiple international conferences and accepted honorary scholarly appointments as a research fellow, professor extraordinaire, adjunct professor, and visiting professor at several universities worldwide.
by PsySSA-Web Support | Nov 16, 2023
Meghan Mosalisa has recently passed her Masters in Psychology at Stellenbosch University. Her research interests are focused in women’s health and health psychology. Meghan is also on a safeguarding committee which investigates and reports on sexual misconduct cases.
