Prof Hester Klopper

Vice-Rector and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Strategy and Internationalisation, Stellenbosch University

Dr Hester Klopper is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Strategy and Internationalisation at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, where she is responsible for overall institutional strategy, the institutional research and planning, business intelligence and information governance, corporate communication, marketing and student recruitment, and the international strategy and relations. In addition, she is a Professor in the Department of Global Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. In her academic capacity she has supervised 50+ Master and 35+ PhD students; published 80+ peer-reviewed articles; and is the Editor-in-Chief of the Elsevier journal IJANS.

Internationalisation and Global Health has become a focus area of her work over the past decade, and through her visionary leadership, the Global Advisory Panel on the future of Nursing and Midwifery (GAPFON) was established. She has served as Chairperson of GAPFON for 2017-2019. She serves as Director on the following boards: Consortium for Universities in Global Health (CUGH) (2018-2021), the APO Accreditation Body Council (Japan), Venice International University and the Global Alliance for Universities in Climate (GAUC). Hester is to date the only South African inducted into the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN), is a Fellow of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), and inducted into the International Hall of Fame for Research Excellence in 2016. Also in 2016, a Doctorate (Honoris Causa) from Oxford Brookes University was conferred recognising her contribution to health science education and research globally. In country, she is a Fellow of the Academy of Science (ASSAf), a member of the South African Academy for Science and Art, member of the Institute of Directors of South Africa (IODSA) and Fellow of the Academy of Nursing of South Africa (FANSA).

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