The HERS South Africa Program, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, began in 2000. Over the course of the first four years, 73 women travelled from South Africa to Wellesley College to participate in carefully tailored training opportunities and to observe administrative practice at U.S. colleges and universities. Participants were paired with women leaders at host institutions including Bryn Mawr College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, Amherst College, Bridgewater State College, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.  Curriculum focused on strategic planning, change leadership, human resource development and institutional effectiveness.

In 2003, the program shifted to emphasize the development of a HERS sister program in South Africa. Today HERS-SA, located in Cape Town and employing the talents of HERS alumnae and supporters carries out a variety of activities including one-day and two-day workshops on various campuses across South Africa.  The featured program is the one-week HERS-SA Academy each fall, training 85 women administrators from higher education institutions in South Africa, Ghana, Zambia, Namibia, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda. Since 2003, again with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, a small number of HERS-South Africa Academy graduates have been selected each year to participate in the HERS Bryn Mawr Summer Institute. 

In September 2006 HERS President and Executive Director Judith White spoke at the HERS-SA Academy and visited with HERS alumnae from South Africa, including Her Excellency Naledi Pandor, South Africa's Minister of Education--a 1993 graduate of the HERS Bryn Mawr Summer Institute. 

In September 2008 the Association for Black Women in Higher Education (ABWHE) partnered with HERS to lead a study tour to South Africa, which included attending the 2008 HERS-SA Academy.

For more information visit the HERS-SA website: http://www.hers-sa.org.za

HERS-SA Academy 2011 Participants