Team

Neil is based in South Africa, from where he has provided policy and technical advice and support to a range of national and international clients regarding educational planning, uses of educational technology and distance education, both as a full-time employee at the South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE) from 1993 to 2001 and as Director of Neil Butcher & Associates since then. He has worked with various educational institutions (including UNESCO and the Commonwealth of Learning), assisting with transformation and research efforts that focus on effectively harnessing the potential of distance education methods, educational technology, and OER.

Neil has travelled extensively through the developing world conducting research on educational policy, higher education, distance education, education management information systems, and educational technology for a range of organizations, governments, and donors. He works with OER Africa as the project’s OER Strategist and is also currently consulting to the World Bank on a range of project activities across several African countries and in Asia. 

Monge Tlaka joined NBA in 2002 as the Database and Systems project manager. Currently, this role involves platform and website development, improvement and quality control, monitoring and reporting, and managing technical teams. Monge works closely with various organizations and a broad network of subject matter experts to develop eLearning curricula, courses and appropriate learning activities. She was an integral part of the team that developed the National Department of Health Knowledge Hub concept and framework, and she currently leads the development, support and implementation of the project. Monge has gained extensive experience in online content publishing, developing interactive tutorials, and implementing social media strategy. She also leads content creation teams in the development and distribution of content.

Andrew has worked at NBA since 2003 as an author, materials developer, instructional designer, web interface designer, and educational technology trainer. He has also facilitated the development of ICT in Education policies at both national and institutional levels. He is currently managing several projects designed to provide capacity to staff at African ministries of education and higher education institutions to design, develop and deploy e-learning solutions using open resources. He has also helped others use the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers to design professional development courses for teachers in Kenya, Rwanda, Togo, South Africa, Oman, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and the Philippines. Andrew completed a Master of Education degree specializing in Computer Assisted Education at the University of Pretoria and has 14 years’ experience teaching secondary education.

Merridy is a senior researcher and project manager with 20 years’ experience doing social and educational research in both traditional academic and applied environments. Merridy has worked at all levels of the education sector in South Africa and other developing country contexts, including schooling, technical and vocational education and training, community colleges, universities and skills development. She is well versed in qualitative and quantitative research methods, including monitoring and evaluation, institutional research, participatory and action research. She has published widely in national and international journals, has published two scholarly books and was an Associate Editor (Education and Social Sciences) for the South African Journal of Science from 2015-2017. Merridy has a PhD in Higher Education Studies from the University of the Free State and an MPhil in Development Studies from Oxford University, which she attended as a Rhodes Scholar. Amongst other clients, she is currently working with the LEGO Foundation to evaluate the Foundation Phase Initiative Learning through Play with Six Bricks Manipulatives, the Education Development Center (EDC) to evaluate Takalani Sesame's Community Engagement work, and with Arizona State University (ASU) as evaluation partner for the Baobab Social Learning Platform. 

Sarah is a lead researcher at NBA. Since joining NBA in 2006, Sarah has evaluated several projects in the area of education and technology, bringing data collection, research, problem solving, analytical, writing, and critical thinking skills. Sarah has worked with, and provided research services to several organizations including Microsoft, UNESCO, Commonwealth of Learning, GESCI, DAAD, and African Leadership Academy. Sarah has also published on issues related to distance education and open educational resources. Sarah manages several research projects, and is currently evaluating the effectiveness of an Africa Careers Network pilot programme (an initiative of the African Leadership Academy running in South Africa, Uganda, Rwanda, and Ethiopia), a project which aims to enhance the career trajectory of students. She has a Masters Degree in Social Science (Counselling Psychology) and started her career as a counselling psychologist.

James joined NBA in 2011 as a Senior Developer, Technical Advisor, Systems Administrator and Project Manager. James has been developing, setting up, hosting and maintaining various online platforms, learning management systems (LMS) and content management systems (CMS) since 2008. James worked as a junior developer in C# and .NET languages, using the Dot Net Nuke and Community Server platforms as well as database design using Microsoft SQL Server. James has Advisory, Training, PHP, MySQL, and Linux Server management skills in the Moodle and Drupal platforms. James is a proponent of using open source software and systems to enable and improve access to quality, relevant educational resources in Africa. James enjoys the research and implementation of these web technologies to provide meaningful improvements in education.

Mohini is a researcher, with educational research and evaluation expertise. At NBA, she has worked for distinguished national and international organizations and government entities. She has managed projects for UNESCO Cairo, Artificial Intelligence for Development (AI4D) Africa, and the Flemish Association for Development Cooperation and Technical Assistance (VVOB). Mohini has also honed her skills in content development and narrative writing, developing instructional and promotional content for organizations such as African Leadership Academy and the South African Department of Higher Education and Training. In 2017, she obtained her Master’s degree in Sociology at the University of Cape Town, having attained her Honours degree in Social Anthropology at the same university. Her Master's dissertation examined conceptions of decolonization and academic freedom and their impact on South Africa’s higher education landscape. Mohini’s career interests lie at the nexus of research and education, which continues to drive her advocacy for accessible, high-quality education for all.

Kirsty joined NBA as a project manager in 2016 and since then her work has focused on early literacy and open licensing for a project funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation but she also collaborates on NBA’s work with OER Africa. Her work on various projects includes research, editing, writing, and content development with a focus on open learning. Kirsty is responsible for communications and social media activities at NBA. Before joining NBA, Kirsty worked in educational publishing, producing titles for South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia. Kirsty has extensive experience publishing print and digital textbooks, online assessment and courses, and resource materials for the schools’ curricula across all grades and subjects.