Speaker Profile

BIOGRAPHY

Dr Stephanie Leigh is an academic pharmacist in the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) in Johannesburg, where she leads the Division of Pharmacy Practice. She also serves as the Director of the WITS Pharmacy Regulatory Sciences Hub (PRSH), hosted within WITS Pharmacy and supported by the WITS Health Consortium (WHC). The PRSH aims to establish itself as a recognised research and teaching centre of excellence in regulatory sciences, promoting evidence-based research, professional training, and capacity-building initiatives that strengthen regulatory systems in South Africa and across the African continent. Dr Leigh holds a PhD in Pharmacy, and her current research focuses on clinical practice, with particular emphasis on policy development and regulatory sciences. She oversees the “Dossier Assessment for Clinical Assessors within African Regulatory Agencies” course at the PRSH, which was developed in collaboration with founding stakeholders to enhance capacity among clinical assessors working in national regulatory authorities. In addition to her research and leadership roles, Dr Leigh supervises twelve master’s and five PhD students. She lectures on pharmacology to chiropractic and homoeopathy students at the University of Johannesburg. Her professional service includes acting as an intern CPD moderator and PSP examination moderator for the South African Pharmacy Council (SAPC). She also represents academia within the Southern Gauteng Branch of the Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa (PSSA), where she serves as Vice Chairperson (2021–2025). Furthermore, she contributes her expertise as an external evaluator for Category D medicines at the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) and as an evaluator for the WITS Human Research Ethics Committee, reviewing medical and clinical trial research.