Board | Wordworks

Mignon Hardie is the executive director of the FunDza Literacy Trust, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to growing a culture of reading and writing among South African teens and young adults, and she is a director of Cover2Cover Books, an independent publisher. She is passionate about social development and is keen for her work to contribute towards building a more equitable, healthy society. She has a BA (English and Economics) from UCT and an MBA (cum laude) from the University of Stellenbosch Business School.

Shelley von Seidel (Treasurer)

Shelley von Seidel holds a Bachelor of Accountancy degree and has been a member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants since 2006. She also has a B.A Degree majoring in English and Economics. Shelley has worked as an accountant for the First Rand Group and is currently a director at Showerline (Pty) Ltd. She is an avid reader and so is passionate about how childhood literacy is a vital cornerstone in a child’s education.

Tracey Chiappini-Young

Tracey Chiappini-Young is a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) with twenty years of diverse business management, brand strategy and investment management experience.

Babalwayashe Molate

Babalwayashe Molate is a Ph.D. Candidate in the School of Education at the University of Cape Town. Her current study explores the language and literacy socialization practices of a Black multilingual family in a dual-household arrangement in South Africa – oscillating between the city and their rural home. Her broader research area is grounded in Language Socialisation, with a keen focus on African languages and multilingualism, family literacies, family language policy, and school language policy. Connected to her main research interest are her experiences in biliteracy club facilitation and family literacies training. She also translates and edits children’s literature into isiXhosa.

Nangamso Mtsatse

Nangamso Mtsatse is currently a PhD candidate in Education Policy and a member of ReSEP at Stellenbosch University. She holds a Masters in Assessment & Quality Assurance in Education and Training. Currently she is the Head of Literacy and Relationships at Funda Wande. Nangamso is a member of the South African Human Rights Commission Right to read and write, where she is the chairperson of the subcommittee of the African language working group. Prior to joining Funda Wande, she worked at UNISA as a lecturer and the Centre for Evaluation and Assessment as a junior researcher, where she was involved in planning and executing the Progress in Reading Literacy study 2016 (PIRLS). Nangamso’s main research interests are early reading literacy in African languages, literacy measuring, testing, reading and writing pedagogy. In 2019, Nangamso was selected to be on the Top 30 Under 30 Global Literacy Leaders by the International Literacy Association. Her research envisages improving the teaching and learning of African languages in the foundation phase as well as developing teaching materials, valid and reliable assessment tools in African languages.

Jennifer Khumalo

Jennifer Khumalo has worked in the NGO and development sector for the past 10 years, specializing in communications since 2013 where she has worked for a number of NGO’s in Cape Town. She is passionate about social justice and development, using communications to highlight the impact of organizations as well as tell their stories through multimedia. She holds a 1st Class BA (Hons) Degree in Photography as well as multiple professional development courses in communications from Red and Yellow School of Business.