Laetitia Rispel is a Professor of Public Health and a Chair Holder of the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI), entitled Research on the Health Workforce for Equity and Quality, at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, South Africa.
She obtained a PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1998, the first black woman to obtain a doctoral degree in the Department of Community Health.
Prof Rispel's Research expertise is broadly in Public Health, and specifically in health policy and systems research. She has extensive and wide-ranging Experience of Research, Teaching, and Executive Health Management in different settings.
Prof Rispel is a former Head (Dean) of the Wits School of Public Health (January 2012 until January 2017). This enabled her to Direct and Transform Research, Teaching and postgraduate Supervision in the School. She is also a former Head of the Gauteng Provincial Government Department of Health (2001-2006). The experience has been invaluable in conducting Research that feeds directly into, and has had an impact on, health policy development and practice.
Her Research focuses on two central themes that are interrelated: the performance of the South African health care system and the health workforce.
