​​​Dr Therese Fish will be among this year's recipients of the prestigious Chancellor's Award in acknowledgement of her contribution to Stellenbosch University's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) over nearly two decades.

As Vice-Dean: Clinical Services and Social Impact since 2006, Fish – a medical doctor who first joined the University as a lecturer in the Business School after graduating with an MBA – is responsible for leading the integration of training and research with clinical service.

This includes developing and maintaining strategic relations with the Western Cape Health Department, National Health Laboratory Services and other partners. It entails responsibility for establishing agreements and contracts with institutions in both the public and private sectors as well as regular engagement with various statutory bodies.

FMHS Dean Prof Jimmy Volmink, who nominated Fish for the Chancellor's Award in the social impact category, believes she has the ideal combination of leadership and management skills to deal with the wide range of duties in her portfolio.

“She has strong analytical skills and a unique ability to grasp complex processes and concepts," he wrote in his nomination. “These attributes underpin her extraordinary capacity to function within the complex space between the higher education and health systems."

As an example, Volmink pointed to Fish's role in co-leading the launch of the Worcester Campus and Ukwanda Rural Clinical School in 2011, which substantially increased opportunities for undergraduate students to immerse themselves in rural areas for extended periods of training.

She built on this by successfully leading the strategic planning and implementation of the Faculty's educational platform, which now comprises more than 100 training sites in the health, social service and education sectors, and notably includes an expansion into areas which were previously underserved such as the Northern Cape and Karoo.

But it was not only Fish's technical skills that convinced Volmink that she was a worthy recipient of the Chancellor's Award. “As an advocate for social justice, equity and transformation, [she] has courageously challenged the status quo to align with Stellenbosch University's institutional commitment," he noted in his motivation.

As an example, the Dean referred to a survey she initiated at Tygerberg Hospital in 2007 to identify how employees – especially those from under-represented groups – experience the culture of the institution.

“Further evidence of Therese's commitment to inclusivity is exemplified in her questioning of the tradition of separate oath-taking processes of our various undergraduate programmes," Volmink stated. This resulted in the development and adoption of a new inter-professional graduate pledge in 2018.

In addition, Fish played a key role in finalising a new multilateral governance agreement between the Western Cape Health Department and the four health sciences faculties in the province during negotiations that took place from 2012 to 2016.  She followed this up by leading the task team which concluded the bilateral agreement between Stellenbosch University and the provincial health department, which was signed in 2020.

Volmink further pointed out that Fish's leadership extended far beyond the Faculty and Stellenbosch University. For instance, she was a member for 10 years of the Medical and Dental Board of the Health Professions Council of South Africa, which oversees the training of health professionals in the country.

“She was, in addition, an active participant in tasks teams responsible for reviewing the funding of health professions clinical training and human resources for health," Volmink wrote.

Her Chancellor's Award is therefore well deserved. “[Fish's] individual and collective contribution and leadership … has been characterised by sustained excellence and innovation over more than a decade," Volmink observed. “Her advocacy role and engagement within Stellenbosch University has had a transformative effect on the institution.

“Furthermore, her positive engagement at the interface of the health and education sectors, particularly with respect to furthering decentralised/community-based health professional training, has significantly advanced Stellenbosch University's impact on society."

Fish said she was honoured by the recognition of her contribution to the University and the Faculty. “I have a long history with Stellenbosch University, where I first enrolled for a diploma in community health in 1993 as I prepared to vote for the first time in a democratic South Africa," she recalled.

“While that was not an easy period to navigate, I look back now and acknowledge that Stellenbosch gave me the ability to effect change, drive some of my passions and further develop as a leader."

Fish looks back on her career with a mixture of pride and pain: “I was born as a mixed-race child in a time in South Africa when the system of apartheid had been in existence for 14 years. My father, Ronald, raised us, emphasising the importance of education (I had lost my mother just shy of my sixth birthday).

“A brilliant brain, he was 18 years old when the system of apartheid was legislated in 1948. He never had the opportunity to participate in a university education. My mother, Muriel, never completed high school.

“Throughout my childhood, high school and university education and my career, I have been supported by many others which enabled me to achieve my numerous successes. It is them, and especially Ronald and Muriel, that I wish to acknowledge through the receipt of this reward."

Fish, who will also receive a Doctorate of Business Administration in higher education management from the University of Bath this month, paid tribute as well to others like her parents: “This Chancellor's Award is for the many Ronalds and Muriels who were not allowed to attain their full potential because of the apartheid system."

Photo credit: Damien Schumann