Meet our team
Head Office
Tracey Chambers - CEO
Lisa Voortman
Head of education
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 Collins
Head of business sustainability
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
Marketing and fundraising manager
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.
Lyndsey Petro
Head of partnerships
Worked as a Writing Centre consultant and tutor at UCT. Lectured part-time at UCT and Cornerstone College. Research Coordinator at Kuyasa Fund, a housing microfinance initiative. Before GROW, Lyndsey spent 5 years at Innovation Edge, an impact-first investor, in the Portfolio Management Team.
Melanie Pillay
Operations Manager
Her qualifications include a Honours BA degree in Psychology and certificate in Data Analytics.
Prior to embarking in a career in the NPO sector, she worked at Kantar SA as a Senior Research Executive. Before joining GROW, she was responsible for the Programmes, Training and Patient portfolio for Operation Smile SA. At GROW, Melanie’s portfolio includes managing the operational implementation of the Technology suite offered by GROW which includes the App and Learning Management System.
Tara Rosser
Regional Implementation Manager KwaZulu-Nata
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.
Mbalenhle Nkosi
Regional Implementation Manager Gauteng
Bachelor of Arts Honours in Social Behavioural Sciences, Project Management certification and a Master of Arts in Social Behavioural Sciences.
She has over 14 years’ experience from a diverse background including international NGO’s, social enterprises, corporate and consulting. Her multifaceted skillset ranges from Child Protection, Early Childhood Development (ECD), Corporate Social Investment, Communications, and managing software development projects.
Before joining GROW, Mbalenhle spent 4 years as a consultant at AECI – a global company that serves the mining and manufacturing sectors where she focused on Corporate Social Investment (CSI) as well as OpenUp – a civic technology organisation focussing on Project Management and Communications.
Sheilah Chikoki
Regional Implementation Manager Western Cape
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.
Kim Rosser
Programme Manager KwaZulu-Natal
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.
Lincey van Niekerk
Programme Manager Western Cape
The first 17 years was in Early Childhood Development and the following 10 years was at a high school. With strong organisational and administrative skills, she was led to a new position where she served as an Executive Assistant for a Business Consultant. This position afforded her flexibility, and she was able to consult for a non-profit organisation, mentoring Grade R teachers at schools in the Western Cape. She joined the GROW team in 2021 to manage education outcomes for the region.
Daisy Kekana
Programme Manager Gauteng
She has been working in the children field for the past 19 years and was granted an opportunity to join the Grow ECD team in 2023 April as a Programme Manager for Gauteng Region. She is responsible for capacity building, mentoring, monitoring and evaluation of schools in the different municipalities within Gauteng to implement the Grow ECD programme. She holds a National diploma in early childhood development, certificate in project management, Operations management, facilitation skills and currently in her final year studying Bachelor of arts in Community Development. Her life is motivated by the impact she makes in children’s lives.
Before joining Grow ECD, she led multiple projects responsible for stakeholder relations, establishing Toy Libraries, capacity building of ECD practitioners, parents and Government officials.
