Prof Flavia Senkubuge was appointed as Acting Vice-Principal: Student Life from 1 August 2023.

Prof Senkubuge earned her under- and postgraduate qualifications from UP and is a Specialist in Public Health Medicine with a PhD in Public Health and an MBA from the Edinburgh Business School. In addition to her Master of Medicine and PhD with Specialisation in Public Health Medicine, she holds a Fellowship of the College of Public Health Medicine (FCPHM). Professor Senkubuge joined the University of Pretoria in 2011. She has lectured at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and her research has been mostly on health policy and management and health systems strengthening. She is currently the Deputy Dean of Stakeholder Relations in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Pretoria.

Professor Senkubuge is well respected on the African continent and globally. She is currently the Immediate President of the Colleges of Medicine South Africa (CMSA). Her election was historic in so many ways as she is the first black woman and only the third woman in the CMSA’s sixty-six (66) years to hold the position.

She is a Fellow of the prestigious Kofi Annan Global Health Leadership Program. In 2022, Harvard Public Health recognised Professor Senkubuge as one of the twenty-five (25) standout voices in African Public Health. She is the current chair of the WHO/Afro region African Advisory Council on Research and Development (AACHRD), President of Women in Global Health (WGH) South Africa, and Vice-President of the African Federation of Public Health Association (AFPHA) and current African Ambassador of the International Medical Educators Leaders Forum (IMELF). In 2021 she was recognised as one of the fifty (50) Powerful Women in South Africa by the Mail & Guardian’s Power of Women.