Personal information
Verified email domains
Biography
A Public Health Practitioner with Medical Sciences background; Prof Perpetua Modjadji is a C2-NRF rated Scientist and a Specialist Scientist at the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC, Cape Town) leading Nutrition Epidemiology in Non-Communicable Diseases Research Unit (NCDRU). Perpetua holds a Doctor of Public Health [Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (SMU, 2019), studied concurrently with Master of Public Health (MPH) courses, passing some with distinctions. She also holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Sciences (Chemical Pathology) [University of Limpopo (UL, 2009)]. She has over the years invested in sharpening her academic and research skills at University of Oslo (Norway), Umeå University (Sweden), Antwerp University (Belgium), University of Alabama (USA), and Mixed Methods Research from University of Michigan (USA) through scholarships. She holds an academic associate as an Extraordinary Professor at the University of South Africa (UNISA; 2023-2025) and she is studying Executive MBA at the University of Cape Town:Graduate School of Business (UCT-GSB; 2024-2025) and has Strategy Execution from WITS- Business School,2022
With experience of over 20 years in academia, she has been a Head (HOD) of a clustered Department for Medical Sciences, Public Health and Health Promotion, which under her leadership acquired third stream funding for research, and for teaching and learning, and enabled quality research and effective teaching. Using blended learning/teaching, she lectured Health Sciences qualifications on undergraduate level [BSc. (Med. Sci).; B. Pharmacy.; B. Nutrition.; B.Cur.; B.Optom], as well as Postgraduate Diploma and Master of Public Health. During her tenure as HOD, she became familiar with structures within the tertiary institution management, and belonged to several Universities' committees, such as the Senate, Ethics, Research, and represented UL in three hospital boards. She served in the South African Medical Research Council Transformation Forum, and Employment Equity Committee and Skills Development Forum between 2022 and 2024.
Prof Modjadji is a founding member of the research team that established the Dikgale Health and Demographic Surveillance System Site (Limpopo province); and the site is now called DIMAMO Population Health and Research Centre, and under the South African Population Research Infrastructure Network (SAPRIN). The site was funded by three research grants, namely, the Norwegian Council for Higher Education's Programme for Development Research and Education grant, Norway (NUFU), Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad (Flemish Interuniversity Council) grant, Belgium (VLIR), and Africa Wits-INDEPTH Partnership for the Genomic Research grant (AWIgen).
She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the first and only Tobacco Industry Monitoring observatory in Africa (ATIM) since 2017 to date. ATIM is recognized by the South African Government and the WHO Tobacco Control Framework Convention Secretariat in Geneva. Through her support, ATIM that involves capacity-building of civil society and MPH and PhD students in tobacco control, has received grant funding. She is currently an Editorial Board for Global Pediatric Health (GPH), African Journal for Nursing and Midwifery (AJNM) and edited two IJERPH Special Issues in 2023. She is an external examiner and reviewer for several universities and international journals.
Prof Modjadji was a grant holder (PI) for the SAMRC Capacity Development Initiative researching on nutritional status of vulnerable adolescents in townships of South Africa. Her second Research Development Grant: SEED funding focused on households’ food security, nutritional and socioeconomic statuses in rural Limpopo Province impacted by Covid-19, and both projects have collaboration. Other previous Research Grants included studies on prevention and management of chronic diseases, Metabolic Syndrome, and Postnatal depression as a co-PI. Currently, she is a PI for a project on Non-Communicable Diseases in the era of Antiretroviral Therapy among mother-child pairs: NCDART-MC study in the Non-Communicable Diseases Research Unit (NCDRU), SAMRC. Her research niche is Public Health Nutrition, precisely on Double Burden of Malnutrition, and Maternal and Child Nutrition with a new focus on HIV convergence.
With seven research awards under her belt, including the SMU Vice Chancellor's Research Excellence Award as the Best-Established Researcher in Health Sciences, and Limpopo Province Department of Health Award, Prof Modjadji has showcased her research work on credible national/international platforms, and continues to raise a generation of researchers/scientists through Doctoral and Masters supervision and peer mentoring.
In 2019, SMU called her an Academic Role Model after obtaining her second doctorate in Public Health. Again in 2021, SMU called her an Academic Scholar in the making after becoming an Associate Professor of Public Health.
Activities
Employment (3)
Education and qualifications (5)
Professional activities (16)
Funding (10)
Works (50 of 90)
2-s2.0-85141890713
2-s2.0-85141183783
2-s2.0-85127023854
2-s2.0-85099311976
2-s2.0-85097669758
2-s2.0-85084256162