The AJOL Team
Susan Murray, CEO
From an academic background of Development Economics and previous Non Profit training organisation work experience, Susan Murray has been the Executive Director of African Journals OnLine (AJOL) since 2010, and its Manager for 3 years before that. She has grown AJOL from a short online list of some African peer-reviewed journals to a large full text online platform (using Free and Open Source software) of rigorously assessed and supported African research journals. AJOL now provides various services to millions of people within the continent and around the world. Murray is and has been an Advisory Committee Member and Board Director of several regional and global scholarly initiatives, is an experienced workshop facilitator, and a frequent conference speaker. She considers herself extremely fortunate to work with a wonderful group of dedicated, expert, and light-hearted colleagues who consistently strive to bring important African research outputs and African scholarly voices to global prominence. When she's not working on AJOL’s never-ending “to do” list, she has a tendency to rescue (and adopt) stray puppies and to feed feral cats.
Ivy Mutambanengwe, COO
Based in Zimbabwe, Ivy joined AJOL as the new COO in 2022 after amassing 16 years' experience in the development aid sector in Zimbabwe, Uganda and South Sudan. Ivy is systems and process driven and has a passion for organisational effectiveness, good corporate governance and development of the African continent. She has a Masters in Development Studies and a Post Graduate Diploma in Applied Corporate Governance and Strategic Leadership. Ivy is a Member of the Project Management Institute (PMI), and is a member of the Institute of Directors of Zimbabwe (IoDZ). Ivy is also a Volunteer Mentor and Projects Coordinator at Tugwi Trust and Board Member at Footprints Community Trust. In her spare time Ivy enjoys reading, cooking, hosting, travelling, events management and spending time in solitude.
Kate Snow, Content and Communications Manager
After working as an environmental consultant in West Africa for a couple of years, Kate came back to Makhanda and started at AJOL in February 2014. Here she has grown a passion for research and knowledge sharing. Kate has been lucky enough to have worked in and visited many countries in Africa, she considers it a privilege to be working for an organization on the continent, for the continent.
Kylie van Zyl, Applications and Assessment Officer
Kylie has worked variously as an administrator, university archivist, and freelance editor before completing her PhD in 2019, joining AJOL in December 2020 and finally finding her niche. A health historian by training, Kylie is passionate about African development, African knowledge, and promoting African research both on the continent and in the Global North. In her spare time she enjoys gardening, videogames, and trying to cook new cuisines with varying degrees of success.
Siziwe Khalatha, Content Administrator
After finishing her Diploma in IT, Siziwe started working as a Technical Assistant for AJOL helping to scan and digitize hardcopies and sending document deliveries via post and email. She started working for AJOL in 2006. In her current role as a Content Administrator, she is uploading journal content online. She has learnt to work and communicate with people at different levels.
Ve'da McLellan (Journal Assessment & Comms Administrator)
After starting with AJOL as an uploading contractor in 2020 and then moving on to become a part-time JPPS Assessment Officer in 2021, Ve’da officially started her full-time role with AJOL as a JPPS Assessment Officer in April 2023. After working in various fields, she considers it a privilege to have been given the opportunity to work within an organisation that strives to not only put African research on the map, but also to make it more accessible — globally or locally — as she believes that this will foster connection, understanding and respect for African research and researchers alike in today’s global community. In her spare time she enjoys gardening, horse riding and (very) amateur astronomy.
Independent Contractors
Jannie van Tonder
Jannie van Tonder has an unfortunate weakness for running large unprofitable indigenous jazz bands. To fund this habit he writes PHP code and dabbles in Open Journal Systems (OJS) software. He lives in the sticks, somewhere near a golf course, with a wordle wife, a moody teenager, a 1959 Ford Prefect, 2 naughty Boxers and 250 Afrocarpus falcata seedlings.
