She is a passionate leader with more than a decade’s experience in management of international NGOs in Africa. She has executed global clinical research programmes for 14 countries in Europe, Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa. In SA she was executive director of the Topsy Foundation and technical advisor and senior operations manager for mothers2mothers, before taking the reins at APCC in August 2019.
CEO
He is Executive Director of Health Equity Partners, a healthcare consultancy and investment advisor.
He was the founding CEO of the Board of Healthcare Funders and has extensive private healthcare corporate experience.
He is a veteran of the healthcare sector, with public health activism and trade union experience from the eighties and nineties. He participated in the development of health policy for a post-Apartheid SA and has held ministerial appointment as Chairman of Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, the Medicine Pricing Committee and the Road Accident Fund.
Chairperson
Tersia’s only child, Vicky Bruce was born with a rare and degenerative connective tissue disorder, Osteogenesis Imperfecta. By her 3rd birthday Vicky had suffered 41 fractures. Despite a prognosis of “life limiting” Vicky survived her childhood and got married at the age of 21. At the age of 22 she gave birth to the first of two sons.
In 2012 the doctors said there was no further curative treatment available. The last 10 years of her life was filled with 81 abdominal surgeries, septicaemia, excruciating pain, total loss of dignity and hopelessness. Five months before Vicky’s death Tersia managed to secure help from Hospice Wits for her child. Two months before her death Vicky asked her mother to start a Hospice in Alberton so “no-one will suffer the way she did”.
On the 1st of January 2013 Stepping Stone Hospice started operating out of Tersia’s home in Alberton. Vicky sadly died on the 18th of January 2013.
Tersia is passionate about Palliative Care for All. She honours her child’s legacy every single day at Stepping Stone Hospice & Care Services.
Tersia is Regional Chairperson of the GP APCC Board and serves on the APCC Board, Accreditation Committee, Sustainability Committee, Standards Review Committee, Finance Committee and is Chairperson of the Mentorship Committee.
Deputy Chairperson
Co-opted Member
She is currently the Managing Director at Hospice Matlosana and the chairperson of the North West Hospice Association. She is married and has two children.
Provincial Chair of North West Province Hospice Association
Nicola has a Bachelors of Social Sciences (B.Soc.Sci) and a Bachelors of Law (LLB) from Rhodes University, and has a passion for supporting the realization of rights for vulnerable communities.
Born in Cape Town, Nicola has lived in many areas throughout South Africa and neighbouring countries, including Namibia and Mozambique. She is currently happily settled in Tzaneen where she is raising her three children and remains committed to improving the health and development of rural communities through the work of CHoiCe Trust.
Chairperson of Limpopo and Mpumalanga
Barend Kellerman acquired his BA LLB degree from Stellenbosch University in 1997. He was admitted as an attorney in 2000. After practising with the firm Kellerman Hendrikse Inc. for more than 15 years, he joined Aimee Joubert to start Kellerman Joubert Incorporated (now Kellerman Joubert Heyns Incorporated).
He is primarily involved in the drafting of contracts and in the field of commercial litigation in the High Court, Magistrates’ Court and private arbitrations. He also deals with constitutional law, sports law (especially doping offences), insurance law, matrimonial disputes and property law. He is admitted as an attorney in the High Court.
He was involved in the Tygerberg Attorneys Association for many years and serves as Commissioner in the Small Claims Court in Bellville. He also serves as a director of the Cape of Good Hope SPCA as part of his service to the community.
Co-opted Member, Kellerman Joubert Inc. Attorneys
As the lead pastor of First City Baptists personal assistant many years ago, Melissa helped with securing PEPFAR funding for the church’s grassroots HIV AIDS NPO, Sophumelela Clinic. She then felt the call to shift her fulltime focus to non-governmental organisation management.
She spent 7 years in middle management as a Grants Compliance Officer and Technical Assistant for Organisational Change at Sophumelela Centre, the mother body of Hope Schools. She moved on to become the General Manager in July 2012 and joined St Bernard’s Hospice as their CEO in 2016.
She is passionate about eradicating social injustices and advocating for Palliative Care as a basic human right. She has a solution-oriented mind set to daily problems. She enjoys finding tools that can facilitate growth and performance, and thrives on providing relevant and tangible help to others.
She became Regional Chair for the Eastern Cape in 2019, and remains in this capacity.
She is happily married to her high school sweetheart and have two children. Joshua, who is 4 and Zoe, who is 15 months.
She loves the Lord with all her heart and is thankful for His promise that He will complete the good work that He has started in us.
Chairperson of Eastern Cape Hospice Association
She obtained her B.Rad. (Diagnostic) in 1993 from the University of the Free State, and while living in Germany for thirteen year obtained a Honours Degree in Psychology (UNISA) in 2000. Back in South- Africa she obtained a Post-Graduate Diploma in Counseling from SACAP in Cape Town, and did practical work at St. Luke’s Hospice, The Compassionate Friends and The Red Cross Children’s Hospital. After moving back to Bloemfontein in 2016 she, she co-founded the Hospice Bloemfontein in 2017. In 2019 she finished a Post-Graduate Diploma in Palliative Care at the University of Cape town, and is currently busy with her M.Phil. in Palliative Care at UCT.
Hanneke is the General Manager of Hospice Bloemfontein, and also works as a counsellor with patients and their families. She is the Chairperson of the Free State Hospice Association.
Hanneke is married to Jan, and has a daughter in high school.
Chairperson of Free State Association
Diane worked for Bidvest where she was the first female appointed manager and led the equity and transformation team for Waltons Kwa-Zulu Natal. During this time Diane served as president of the Hibiscus Chamber of Commerce and was appointed in 2005 as the South Coast Hospice Board Chairperson.
In 2012 she accepted the position of South Coast Hospice CEO on a permanent basis. Her passion is focused on community work and ensuring that the most vulnerable within her community is offered holistic and comprehensive Palliative Care. What she does to relax is gardening and spending time with her family and her pets (Gogi, Chalky and Rosie).
Provincial Vice-Chair of Kwazulu Natal
Engagements and Bodies served:
- 1996 – youth pastor in Assemblies of God.
- 1999 – elected as a chairperson of the restoration Ministry helping rehabilitate youth with substance abuse in Johannesburg.
- 2007 – involved in soulwinning outreach in Northern Cape.
- 2010 – started a palliative care organization called Hearts of Compassion In Northern Cape, was the chairperson thereof, did a lot of outreaches in the mining areas, and continued with the ministry under Victory Ministries as a founder.
- 2015 – helped with the registration of John Taolo Ministerial fraternity and served as a secretary. Worked for the IEC when there are elections as a presiding officer- resigned from the board to become the CEO of the organization in 2015 up to today.
- 2017 – was spotted by HW SETA presenting on E TV on palliative care and invited to participate in the skills development trainings as a means for sustainability for Hearts of Compassion Hospice. Since then, have done many trainings.
Provincial Chair of Northern Cape Hospice Association
Her passion for community-based health care took her to Knysna where she joined the municipal community healthcare clinic. Over the next 15 years, she kept improving her skills and knowledge of the public healthcare sector and established and trained the first volunteer corps of community healthcare workers and lay counsellors in the Southern Cape.
In 2005 Cecily switched gears and joined the Knysna Sedgefield Hospice and as clinical manager supported the Hospice to become a 5-star accredited site. During her 8 years at KSH, she was also involved in developing palliative care training material and the development of the Hospice Data Management System. She left KSH at the beginning of 2013 and for 2 years continued to support APCC (previously HPCA) with the facilitation of palliative care courses and the roll-out of the HDMS to hospices across the country.
In 2015 Cecily took over the management of a small home-based care organisation in Plettenberg Bay, the PlettAid Foundation. She established a fully-fledged home-based palliative care service within the year and expanded its reach into the westernmost edge of the Sarah Baartman district in the Eastern Cape.
Cecily is the chairman of the Western Cape Hospice Palliative Care Association.
Provincial Chair of Western Cape Hospice Palliative Care Association