Dr Prudence Ditlopo, a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Health Policy, was awarded the 2022 Female Academic Leadership Fellowship (FALF) Pod Spirit Award. FALF fellows are encouraged to establish pods or peer support groups, but they are allowed to be at liberty to determine the activities of these groups. Dr Ditlopo, together with her fellow pod members, Prof Veronica Ntsiea and Dr Busisiwe Maseko, were awarded this spirit award for embodying the mission, goals, and values of FALF. This was demonstrated by their determination to take initiatives, collegiality, ability to foster collaboration, while at the same time embodying true leadership spirit.
FALF was founded in 2020 by Dr Judy Dlamini, the University of the Witwatersrand Chancellor to address the racial and gender disparities at leadership level within tertiary institutions. Dr Ditlopo is one of the 30 FALF first cohort fellows across the university that received this fellowship.