Dr Thembisile Xulu - Clinical Director.In 1997, Dr Thembisile (Thembi) Xulu graduated from the University of KwaZulu-Natal with an MBChB, and worked in the public sector from 1998 to 2002. The following year she moved to the Perinatal HIV Research Unit at Chris Hani Baragwaneth Hospital, Soweto, where she was clinical investigator of a TB prevention trial for HIV-positive adults on ART.
She has a Diploma in Obstetrics and a Diploma in HIV Management, both from the Colleges of Medicine of SA, and a Masters in Public Health from the University of Witwatersrand.
Thembi joined Right to Care in 2004 as the Expert Treatment Programme Manager. She then became the project manager for government partners, a position in which she established successful relationships with national and provincial departments of health and brought on new provinces to form partnerships with Right to Care. Thereafter, she managed sub-partners, including treatment NGOs. She is helping to graduate these into accredited government treatment sites.
In May 2007, Thembi was appointed to the board of directors and placed in charge of clinical programmes. She is responsible for all government provincial programmes as well as the strategic expansion of clinical programmes, namely, TB, Adult and paediatric ART, VCT, PMTCT, and down-referral. Under her leadership, the government programme has grown to be the largest programme within Right to Care and the backbone in terms of contributions to the organisation’s care and treatment targets. She continues with the reporting of clinical outcomes of Right to Care programmes to the Department of Health, with the aim of translating local findings into policy and strengthening HIV and TB programme implementation in resource limited setting.