IBSC Africa Regional Conference

Restoring Hope

St. Andrew’s School

Bloemfontein, South Africa

March 12 – 14, 2020

Speakers

Sonia Lupien

Sonia Lupien is the founder and director of the Centre for Studies on Human Stress, which strives to transfer scientifically validated knowledge on stress to the public. For the last 20 years, Lupien has studied the effects of stress on the human brain from infancy to adulthood and old age. Her studies have shown that children—as vulnerable as adults to stress—can produce high levels of stress hormones as early as age six. Her research in adults demonstrates stress can significantly impair memory performance, as well as the effects of stress on the aging brain.

In her new research projects, Lupien examines differences between men and women in stress reactivity. She created the DeStress for Success Program to teach adolescents ways to control stress as they transition from elementary to high school. She also developed the Stress Inc.© program to help workers recognize and control stress by means of a computer program in the workplace.

As part of her drive to educate the public, Lupien recently published the book Par amour du stress to help us better understand stress as it has been studied for the last 50 years by scientists around the world.

Jonathan Shapiro

Famously known as Zapiro, Jonathan Shapiro is a South African cartoonist whose work appears in numerous South African publications and has been exhibited internationally. He studied architecture at University of Cape Town, but couldn't imagine a career in architecture, so switched to graphic design—and promptly got conscripted. In the army he refused to bear arms and in 1983 became active in the newly-formed United Democratic Front. His arrest under the Illegal Gatherings Act caused some consternation in the SADF and his being monitored by military intelligence while also participating in the End Conscription Campaign, designing its logo.

Shapiro began his work as a cartoonist in earnest with a wide range of political and progressive organizations. When the newspaper South began in 1987, he became its editorial cartoonist. Security police detained him in 1988, shortly before leaving on a Fulbright Scholarship to study media arts at the School of Visual Arts in New York. An eye-opening experience, he studied under comics masters Art Spiegelman, Will Eisner, and Harvey Kurtzman. He returned to South Africa in 1991 and with Story Circle produced educational comics including Roxy (Aids education), Tomorrow People (democracy education), and A Trolley Full of Rights (a child abuse prevention comic later used by UNICEF elsewhere in Africa).

He has served as editorial cartoonist for Sowetan, Mail & Guardian, and Sunday Times, with his cartoons also appearing regularly in the Cape Argus, Cape Times, The Star, The Mercury, and Pretoria News. Resulting from hard-hitting cartoons about South Africa's former deputy-president and newly-appointed ANC President Jacob Zuma, he is currently being sued by Zuma for defamation.

Garth Shaw

Garth Shaw has spent most of his life in boys' schools. After attending Queen's College for grades1-12, his call to teaching came during his gap year at an all-boys school in England. Having qualified from the University of Stellenbosch, he spent his formative teaching years at Paarl Boys' High School. However, he always found his passion working in development contexts. He cut short his time at Paarl Boys' High to accept a promotion post at Claremont High School—a start-up school specifically seeking to serve poorly positioned learners. Having completed his honours (in school management) during his first year at Claremont High, Shaw enrolled in a master’s study at the University of Cape Town, which he later upgraded to a doctorate study.

Cobus Pienaar

Since 2008, Cobus Pienaar has served as managing director of the Arbinger Institute in South Africa, a world-renowned management consulting and training firm and scholarly consortium that specializes in changing mindset. Leading the delivery of Arbinger’s programs and consulting services in South Africa, Pienaar often consults with companies in the private and public sector, focusing on the development of leaders, teams, and organizations.

Born and raised in Bloemfontein, South Africa, he was graduated by the University of the Free State in 1994 and completed his postgraduate studies in 2005, obtaining all his degrees with distinction. Registered as an organizational psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa, Pienaar has been appointed as senior psychologist and organizational development consultant for several organizations. Pienaar served as senior lecturer in the Department of Industrial Psychology at the University of the Free State from 2002-15, chairing that department from 2007-10. He still conducts research on topics related to leadership, careers, and dysfunctional leadership and organizations, and has published in peer-reviewed academic journals such as the South African Journal of Education, Acta-Academica, South African Journal of Psychology, Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe, South African Journal of Business Management, Southern African Business Review, and South African Journal of Industrial Psychology.

In addition, Pienaar has read scientific papers at various international conferences such as Advances in Management, the International Congress on Leadership in Post-school Education, IPED Conference, the International Conference in Contemporary Business, and the 6th European Conference on Leadership, Management, and Governance. Scientific peer-reviewed journals often approach him to review academic articles.