About Us
FALF seeks to develop a pipeline of South African, African and Africans of mixed ancestry female academic leaders in tertiary institutions (Chancellor’s Fellows).
Female Academic Leaders Fellowship (FALF) NPC is a non-profit company that seeks to develop a pipeline of women academic leaders, using an intersectional lens to ensure no demographic group is left behind. Based on the Ministerial Task Team Report (2020) the social group that lacks representation in academic leadership and senior research is black women, namely African and Coloured South African women, as defined by the Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment Act 53 of 2003, as may be amended from time-to-time B-BBEE Act), (the Designated Group). FALF was founded by the Wits University Chancellor, Dr. Judy Dlamini in 2020 to develop knowledge producers, academic leaders at all levels, research chair holders and directors of centres of excellence from the Designated Group. FALF offers grants and a wraparound support to successful fellows including running workshops on leadership, mentorship, academic citizenship, grant funding application, mental health, research, amongst others. This is made possible by the generous donors who are aligned to FALF’s vision. FALF has been able to form partnerships with other local and international universities beyond Wits University, the first partner of the FALF program.
FALF’s internationalisation program was started at Oxford University in 2025, a partnership between FALF and the Oxford University Africa Initiative (AfOx), co-funded by Standard Bank. The research chairs to be launched in 2025 and 2026 represent areas that are of national importance, namely Gender Based Violence and Femicide to be hosted at Wits University co-funded by the NRF and Ford Foundation; Entrepreneurship and Financial Inclusion to be hosted at the Nelson Mandela University, funded by FirstRand Empowerment Foundation (FREF) and the Gender Equality Research Chair to be hosted at Wits University, funded by WDB Trust. FALF will be scaling to other public universities supported by donors and the executive leadership at the host universities.
