Epicentre was established in 2001 in KwaZulu-Natal, but today also has offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Pietermaritzburg. Epicentre has a national and international network of supervisors, field workers, nurses, trainers, drivers and counsellors who assist us in implementing our studies.
Our executive team
Cherie Cawood
CEO
Cherie Cawood is the founding member and CEO of Epicentre. She holds a Bcom in Marketing, an MBA and is trained in monitoring and evaluation, and project management.
Cawood embeds sound project management principles in all the Epicentre programmes and projects. She is responsible for the strategy, and signs off the budget.
David Khanyile
Field Operations Department: Director
David Khanyile holds a BA in Social Science, an honours in Psychology and is currently studying for an honours in HIV/AIDS.
He joined Epicentre in 2002 as a consultant. He has been a technical project manager, a regional manager and since 2011 he is director of the department which oversees all Epicentre field operations.
Elsa Marshall
Program Manager
Elsa oversees all projects run by Epicentre. She studied business and majored in computer programming (George Brown College, Canada).
She has worked in the technology industry for many years. In the last 4 years, she has been involved with setting up mobile data collection environments, monitoring and evaluation, in the research space, working with local and international NGOs, universities and government.
Pooja Singh
Data Manager
Pooja Singh holds a BSc in Environmental Science. In February 2015, she was appointed as the Data Administrator for the HIPSS project.
In June 2016, she became the overall Data Manager for Epicentre projects. Her responsibilities include database management, dealing with data submission errors, managing the data officers, data reports, and quality control.
Chitra Singh
Regional Manager: Pietermaritzburg
All field operations from projects assigned to the Pietermaritzburg office are managed by Chitra Singh.
She started at Epicentre in January 2017 and her key responsibilities entail: planning, organizing and managing the projects to ensure delivery on time, budget and quality standards. She is a Masters of Social Science (Research Psychology) graduate.
Neliswa Dladla
Regional Manager: Johannesburg
Neliswa Dladla manages all field operations from projects assigned to the Johannesburg office.
Before joining Epicentre in 2017, she was a Clinical Data Coordinator at CAPRISA. She holds a master of population studies and demography, and a bachelor in social work.
Liezel Williams
Regional HR & Finance Manager
Liezel Williams (Legal Dip), joined Epicentre in 2009. She is based in the Cape Town offices and is responsible for the Regional HR, Finance and Company Compliance.
Clarence Collins
Accounts
Clarence Collins has a B.comm and honours in accountancy. Clarence is responsible for the monthly management accounts, VAT, UIF, and payroll.