Ms Heather Thuynsma

Heather Thuynsma holds a BA and a BA Honours from the University of the Witwatersrand, received her MA in applied politics from the University of Akron, and attended the Women’s Campaign School at the Yale Law School to complete her specialization in fundraising and political campaign strategy. She has spent 26 years working in the South African and US non-profit sectors advising on strategic planning and fundraising operations and media relations. She worked as a specialist election monitor during South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994, has coordinated communications and fundraising operations for political campaigns at various levels of government in the US State of Ohio, and has taught campaign management, fundraising strategy, and civic and human rights education in both the US and South Africa. 

Ms Thuynsma has published articles on human rights education for the United Nations and on South Africa’s political campaigns and electoral strategy for the Electoral Institute of South Africa. She is an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Pretoria’s Department of Political Sciences. Ms Thuynsma edited the book-length publication entitled, Public Opinion and Interest Group Politics: South Africa’s Missing Links? and will release another edited volume entitled Political Parties in South Africa: Do they Underpin or Undermine Democracy? in May 2017.

 

Research focus:

Current areas of research focus include Fragile States, Political Behaviour, Political Campaigns &
Political Communication, Researching Campaigns & Elections across Africa, and
Campaign Finance.

 

Selected publications:​

  • 2017: "The Nation Brand and its Strategic Reflection: Journal Special Section”, Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 39, 1. (co-editor)

  • 2017: “Political Parties in South Africa: Do they Underpin or Undermine Democracy?”, Africa Institute for South Africa. (editor)

  • 2002: “Public Opinion and Interest Group Politics: South Africa’s Missing Links?”, Africa Institute for South Africa. (editor)

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