Xena Cupido holds the position of Director at the Fundani Centre for Higher Education Development, at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Her scholarly pursuits centre around the critical domain of student engagement and success, with a specific focus on participatory learning, holistic student engagement, and designing for social justice. Recently, Dr. Cupido has also demonstrated a growing interest in the integration of digital technologies as an instrumental pedagogical tool to optimize the process of learning and teaching. Xena has actively engaged in projects focused on learning and teaching, student academic development, and the fundamental pursuit of social justice within the realm of higher education. Her focus extends to co-creating curriculum frameworks, implementing participatory student engagement practices, promoting access, and effectively addressing youth needs to enhance overall success. On a national level, Dr. Cupido has established collaborations through involvement with the Siyaphumelela Network and the TAU Fellowship which advances teaching at the university. These associations are centered on bolstering institutional capacities to provide holistic support for students.

Sydney is the visual note-taker of the team, and records the progress of this project through illustrations. With a background in the art industry, education and activism, Sydney enjoys this role that merges these three worlds. With every meeting that takes place, she learns more about academia, where it is lacking and where it needs to evolve to be more socially just. Being a part of the Designing for Social Justice team means being witness to and contributing towards a vision that intends to make the higher education space more informed, more self-aware and more intent on taking accountability. Every action counts and I'm incredibly proud to be a part of this one.

Asanda Ngoasheng is currently the Coach/Facilitator for the Designing for Social Justice Partnership Project (DSJP). Ngoasheng is a scholar and activist in the education, gender, diversity and politics space. She is regularly interviewed on these topics in local (SABC), regional (News Central) and international media (BBC, Voice of America). Her career has included working as a journalist and a media academic and curriculum transformation advocate at the University of Witwatersrand and Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). She has spoken globally including in SA (UNISA), the United States (Duke University), United Kingdom (Sussex University), Germany (University of Konstanz), Denmark (Oxfam Ibis), Austria (Bruno Kreisky Forum).

Ngoasheng has led institutional journeys of change at academic institutions, nonprofits and corporates through her diversity and decolonising the curriculum work. Her interdisciplinary, transnational research and practice have made her a sought-after facilitator and thought leader. She has written academic articles, chapters and opinion pieces on these topics exploring how her work as an academic and diversity practitioner, crosses people and knowledge boundaries by using interdisciplinary autoethnographic narratives and methodologies to tell the stories of her participation in social, academic and activist life. In her work and projects, she seeks to demonstrate that Decolonial pedagogies, while political in nature, can go beyond mere ‘political’ statements and become true practice and methodology with an impact on one’s ways of working and ways of engaging with racialised, othered,marginalised, minorotised people. They also emphasize that institutional change does not happen in a vacuum, is political, difficult, and emotionally taxing and it is best done in collaboration with different stakeholders.

Deidré Johnson is an accomplished ‘eduvator’ with an extensive background in learning strategy and design, online higher education, and corporate training.

Since founding EdXimia Pty (Ltd) in August 2022, a visionary eLearning consultancy specialising in course strategy and design, as well as development in the realm of learning design, Deidré Johnson has been at the forefront of EdTech innovation, offering consultancy services in best practices, accreditation compliance, and the development of online learning materials. With a mission to make education accessible to all in a socially just way, EdXimia excels in crafting innovative learning strategies and designing digital solutions that drive educational transformation.

With a Master of Science in Biokinetics, she combines academic expertise with practical experience in enhancing online education and corporate training. Her career highlights include roles in academic governance, compliance, and educational innovation, focusing on operational management, stakeholder relationship building, and the development of engaging learning experiences.

Outside of her professional endeavours, Deidré enjoys running and outdoor activities, emphasising her belief in the importance of balance between work and personal well-being.

Zwelibanzi works in Fundani in the First Year Experience (FYE) unit. His work centres around student transition, support and retention. Our methods of achieving this are through our mentoring and retention officer programs which employ senior students who we train to provide academic & psycho-social support to 1st year students. Additionally, he supporst 1st year students personally too, through the workshops he provides institution wide, on various academic & non-academic (psycho-social) topics. He has also served as a researcher, as his unit had a research element in the past collecting data on the demographics of our 1st year population in order to better inform policy creation and, the solutions aimed at meeting the needs of our 1st year students. On a more personal front, his 1st qualification was in Industrial Psychology, with his most recent Master’s in Business, yet with a research focus on safety in the workplace (offshore oil rigs, specifically).

Zwelibanzi is a Researcher and will be completing his PhD as part of the project. He is immensely grateful for this opportunity & in particularly looking forward to all the academic support and, guidance the partners/ collaborators will be providing him as seasoned and accomplished academics themselves.

Prof Subethra (Su) Pather is currently the Learning & Teaching specialist in the office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). She plays an important role in enhancing UWC’s student success initiatives. Prof Pather is UWC’s Lead for the Siyaphumelela Student Success project funded by the Kresge Foundation. She is Deputy President of the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA). Prof Pather is the manager of UWC First Year Experience (FYE), First Year Peer Mentoring, Academic Advising and Tutor Enhancement Program at an institutional level. She is also involved in a regional project on Designing for Social Justice Partnership (DSJP) in South Africa and an international project on Mentoring Meaningful Learning experiences at the Center for Engaged Learning at Elon University in the USA. Her research interests are located within the higher education field with a particular focus on supporting first-year student access, transition, retention, and success. Her extensive academic publications and academic presentations are located in this field. She is also involved in several national and international networks in first-year experience and student-staff partnerships to advance student success in South Africa and her research agenda.

Lukhona Leni is a devoted scholar with a Master of Commerce in Information Systems, currently pursuing a PhD at the University of the Western Cape. As a researcher on this project, Lukhona aspires to contribute meaningfully to the co-creation and co-design processes, leveraging her academic insights and expertise in Information Systems. Lukhona's role as a researcher on this project exemplifies her dedication to bridging academia and social impact, contributing to the broader mission of co-creating across differences for the betterment of higher education.

Ashleigh Petersen-Cloete is a dedicated and disciplined PhD Candidate in the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. Her research focuses on social justice and religion, specifically gender and social media. Social justice has always been a crucial aspect of Ashleigh’s postgraduate research. As a researcher, she aims to utilise her scholarly excellence, exemplified in the award of two postgraduate degrees Cum Laude, to co-create with this project. Ashleigh looks forward to using her knowledge, skills, and attitudes to make a difference in the Design for Social Justice Partnership project.

Daniela is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Innovation for Learning and Teaching (CILT) at the University of Cape Town. Her current research focuses on academic staff development for designing blended and online learning in higher education, with a particular focus on developing socially just learning and curriculum designs based on co-creation and equity-oriented compassionate design principles. She teaches on the PG Diploma in EdTech, the Masters in EdTech and convenes the Masters in Higher Education Studies (HES) at UCT. She completed a Masters in Adult Education at the University of Botswana and received a PHD from the School of Education at the University of Cape Town. She is a C1-rated researcher and 2022 Fulbright Scholar who has published more than 80 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. She is the managing editor of CriSTaL, the journal for critical studies in teaching and learning in higher education. She blogs at http://danielagachago.blogspot.com and tweets under @dgachago17.

Joe-Dean Roberts is a Bachelor of Social Sciences graduate from the University of Cape Town, majoring in Gender Studies and Law. She is currently completing a challenging but fulfilling LLB degree. Her interests are largely centred around advocacy for women and children as well as a keen interest in leadership research within higher education. She is the project administrator, there to offer general administrative support to the DSJP partners. Being part of the DSJP team means that she can envision and see co-creation taking place through active collaboration.

Esai Reddy is a Masters in Linguistics candidate. She completed a Bachelor of Social Science in Psychology, Linguistics and Sociology and a B.A. (Honours) in Linguistics. Her current research is looking at language experiences of Autism. She is interested in how language is used and perceived by the Autistic community. Co-creation is a key part of her own research as well as her involvement in DSJP. She has been involved in Students as Partners projects at UCT through UCT Lead for the last year. She currently serves as a researcher in the DSJP team. Outside of work, she is a creative at heart and can be found exploring galleries or painting her own works.

Tefo is a Junior Research Fellow at the Centre for Innovation for Learning and Teaching (CILT) at the University of Cape Town. Tefo is excited to take up a role in a team that is deeply rooted in fostering social justice within education through collaborative student-staff partnerships. In this position, Tefo hopes to explore the landscape of student-staff partnerships in the global south, with a specific focus on Africa and the Western Cape and strive to amplify voices and perspectives often marginalised within traditional educational structures. Tefo is also PhD student studying Anthropology and Ethnology at the University of the Western Cape and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (co-tutelle), where his research interests lie between third space theory, the rural development in the Kalahari and education policy. In many ways, this project is a continuation of his MPhil in Education from the University of Cambridge, where he explored rural education policy in the Botswana Kalahari.

Prior to joining the Designing for Social Justice Partnership team at UCT, Tefo served as a Monitoring & Evaluation Officer at think-tank, where their project management skills were instrumental in implementing developing Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on critical research methodologies. He then worked as a management consultant focusing on the nexus of competition economics and public health in Africa.

Laura Cruz (PhD, University of California at Berkeley) is a Research Professor with the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) in the state of Pennsylvania, United States. She also holds a visiting professor position with the University of Prishtina (Kosovo) as part of her work as a Fulbright Specialist. She has previously served as a tenured faculty member, director of two centers for teaching and learning, and editor-in-chief of four academic journals. Her publications include 150+ articles and chapters related to teaching, learning, and related scholarships in higher education.