Tracey Chambers is a qualified Chartered Accountant (CA) from UCT who has had a successful career for over 25 years. She has held various positions – from management consulting to systems and implementation and supply chain projects and ended up working for Woolworths as their Head of Finance. She then pursued her passion to help empower unemployed mother’s and co-founded The Clothing Bank. Tracey will be responsible for the success of the GROW with Educare Centres National business and ensure the accomplishment of GW Foundation’s mission and vision.

Lisa is a qualified special-needs teacher with a postgraduate psychology diploma. She has many years of experience in successfully running her own early childhood development centre. She is responsible for implementing the project process/road map from beginning to end, with a particular focus on the recruitment of new franchisees and the training and mentoring of principals and teachers.

Tracey has a BA-Social Sciences degree, a post graduate diploma in Human Resources and a career of more than 28 years in skills and enterprise development, human resources, retail management and market research. 15 of her working years have been in human resources where she has worked in a broad spectrum of sectors in Southern Africa. When she returned from a stint living in the Middle East in 2010, Tracey pursued her passion for people development in the non-profit sector by being instrumental in the establishment and running of a skills centre in the Cape Winelands to empower disadvantaged unemployed women. Tracey is responsible for national policies and procedures as well as business sustainability within the schools at GROW with Educare Centres.

Heléne Brand joined GROW Educare Centres in January 2019 with 12 years’ experience in senior leadership, business marketing strategy, brand development and social responsibility. Her qualifications include a B.Comm Honours in Marketing (University of Stellenbosch) and certificates in Digital Marketing and Senior Leadership. At GROW, she is responsible for developing and executing an integrated marketing, brand and communication strategy, fundraising and also acts as the company spokesperson.

Kim is a post-level one educator with specialization in Media Science and Remedial Education. She joined the KZN GROW with Educare Centres team in Oct 2017, after spending 17 years as an educator, teaching at a local primary school. She taught Grade 3's, Grade 4, a LSEN class and run the Media Centre. As a passionate remedial teacher, she has also been teaching at a Kip McGrath Education Centre for the past 20 years where she helped learners who experience learning difficulties in Mathematics, English and Afrikaans.She is responsible for working with the Regional Implementation Manager to implement the ECD road map, with a special focus of providing ongoing onsite support and coaching to the principals and teachers of all GROW with Educare Centres.

Tara is qualified in the fields of Financial Accounting and Human Resource Management.  She has 18 years’ experience specifically in the development, setup and management of the financial and HR administration departments within the educational field.  She is responsible for the management of the KwaZulu Natal GROW with Educare Centres project role out and implementation.

Versatile and very successful Operations Manager with a wealth of Financial and Project Management skills acquired across a wide range of demanding roles. Over 35 years’ experience from Finance in the Corporate Sector to the Development Sector, pioneering business models in SMME finance and funding which extended to evaluation projects in Financial Literacy and Education throughout Sub- Saharan Africa. The exposure acquired at Cotlands in the ECD sector will support the establishment of a sustainable ECD’s in the townships of Gauteng.

Vasie Sewramulu has a 4 year diploma in education, specialising in the pre and junior primary phase, with over 25 years in the education sector. She is an ex principal of an independent school, having served in the senior management team of the school and being responsible for the successful management of the primary school. She is passionate about education and has been instrumental in providing various enrichment programs at the school to enhance teaching and learning. Having left teaching, she joined forces with two female partners in establishing a manufacturing company in 2015. However, her passion has always been in education and she therefore decided to join the Grow team.

Sheilah Chikoki is a holder of a Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Psychology from the University of Zimbabwe. Sheilah has 12 years of experience of working in communities managing projects, formulating concepts, facilitating and training in Early childhood development, family preservation, prevention and early intervention programmes. She has worked for Power-Child Campus for 10years and briefly for It Starts With Me Global before joining GROW Educare Centres in January 2019. In her role as the Regional Implementation Manager of Cape Town she is responsible for identifying and recruiting potential Franchisees, establishing and maintaining functional relationships with them. Sheilah fosters an environment of team work in the region and ensures that strategy is clearly defined while overseeing performance and maintaining morale. Her strong communication skills, people skills, critical and strategic thinking ensures that the mission of GROW is driven and that an ecosystem for development and empowerment is created.