Advisory Board

ELETSA Executive Committee 2020-2023

President

Gugu Wendy Tiroyabone

tiroyabonegw@ufs.ac.za
University of the Free State

Gugu Wendy Tiroyabone is the inaugural President of the South African Academic Advising Association, ELETSA for the term 2020 – 2023. She is also the Assistant Director: Advising, Access and Success in the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the University of the Free State, South Africa. Wendy is responsible for providing leadership and management in the research, implementation and evaluation of academic advising and Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) across the University of the Free State. In her work, Gugu’s work includes the management of strategic relationships with national and international stakeholders involved in the advising network across the institution. A qualified, Behavioural Geneticist, Gugu is passionate about empowering and supporting students in becoming self-directed, motivated, and responsible decision-makers. She remains primarily committed to the fields of student development, student engagement, student orientation, support and, ultimately, student success to ensure a new generation of graduates are engineered through efforts such as academic advising. In expanding her latitude of professionalism in higher education, she has amongst other roles worked as Researcher for the South African National Resource Centre for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition (SANRC).

Raazia Moosa

Vice President

Raazia.Moosa@wits.ac.za
University of the Witwatersrand

Raazia Moosa is the Head of the Academic Support at the University of the Witwatersrand and has worked in higher education for 21 years. She played a leading role in instituting advising at the University of the Witwatersrand and is responsible for the central co-ordination of advising and the management of university capacity development grants. Raazia has worked in academic planning, quality assurance, student recruitment and admissions, academic support, programme evaluation and higher education policy. She has served on several national working groups and is the Vice President of ELETSA. Her research interests are in higher education policy and management, advising, student success and engagement.

Margaret Mbindyo

Additional Member (NACADA Emerging Scholar)

Margaret.Mbindyo@millersville.edu

Dr. Margaret Mbindyo is an Assistant professor, advisement coordinator, center for advisement and student support for college of arts, humanities, and social sciences and the college of business at Millersville University in Pennsylvania USA.

She began her teaching/advisement/mentoring career in Kenya where she served as a certified secondary school teacher. She has earned several degrees including a dual title Ph.D. degree in Curriculum Instruction and Comparative and International Education from Penn State University, MA in Education Research from Vrije University in Brussels-Belgium, M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from Penn State University, and a B S in Education in English Language and Literature from Kenyatta University-Kenya. She is also a certified Swahili Language tester and rater for ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) and the ACTFL Writing Proficiency Test (WPT) for the Seal of Biliteracy (SOBL).

In the US where she is currently based, she has many years working with students at risk of academic failure starting at Upward Bound Math Science at Penn State University, Upward Bound Program at Millersville University and as a K-12 Supervisor for College Career Readiness at Milton Hershey School in PA. She has also served as a temporary faculty and academic advisor in the department of Academic Advisement and Student Development at Millersville University and at Penn State University-Harrisburg.

Dr. Mbindyo area of research includes the academic resilience and academic persistence and success of low-income/first generation and immigrant students. She has presented her research in local, national and international conferences. She is an awardee of NACADA’s Emerging Leaders Program Class of 2019-2021 and a nominee and winner of the 2019 Mashujaa Awards (USA) in the Youth Empowerment category. In the local community, she volunteers with Church World Services to help transition recent immigrants to the USA system of education.

Responsibilities of the Executive Committee:

The Executive Committee has full authority to act for and on behalf of the Association, expect as otherwise specified in the Constitution.

The Executive Committee is responsible for the planning, execution and monitoring of the Association’s Statement of Purpose.

The Executive Committee is responsible for recommending a budget for approval at the Annual General meeting, after an annual independent audit of the Association’s financial records.

About Eletsa

ELETSA (Advising in Sesotho) is a non-profit organization operating in the South African region. The South African region is defined as all the nine (9) provinces within South Africa. Members from other countries in the African continent/world may also be allowed to join on request. The association holds Allied Membership status through the Global Community for Academic Advising (NACADA) based in USA.

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