About
Our Leaders
The leadership team consists of a cohesive group of recognised specialists in their respective fields.

Dr. Ronita
Mahilall
Chief Executive Officer
Commencing her service in September 2016, Dr Ronita Mahilall leads our organisation as CEO. Ronita holds a PhD in Psychology from Stellenbosch University and the title of her dissertation by publication is: “ SPIRITUAL CARE IN HOSPICE PALLIATIVE CARE SETTINGS IN SOUTH AFRICA: NATIONAL CURRICULUM NEEDS, DESCRIPTION OF PROVINCIAL SERVICES, AND A LOCAL CASE STUDY. She also holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from UNISA. Ronita has been selected to undertake a PhD exchange programme at Kings College, London, UK. She has worked in many NPO settings starting as a social worker at Pinetown Child Welfare.
She went on to be the Head of Social Services of KZN Blind and Deaf Society, and later served as the Director of Community Outreach Centre, St Mary’s Hospital. Ronita also served as a Supervisor employed at UNISA to manage the practical placements of 4th year student Social Workers. Her goals are to provide the best palliative care possible and to impact the lives of as many patients and families as possible in line with her motto of ‘while there may be a limit to cure, there is no limit to care’.
In 2018, Ronita was a finalist in the Regional Businesswoman of the Year. She is also a very active Rotarian. Ronita describes her passions outside of work as any activity that involves heights! She is working towards stepping out of a plane soon …. for fun! And she is totally in LOVE with food; from cooking, baking, experimenting, plating, and eating.

Michelle
Petersen-Damon
HOD: Palliative Care Services
A qualified Social Worker, her experience of 29 years includes the NGO, Grant Making, Disability, Substance abuse, Education sectors and Private Practice. She is task driven with a focus on building and sustaining internal and external partners; Quality Assurance; Monitoring and Evaluation; innovating internal systems and promotes a community of practice through teamwork. Mentoring and coaching in the workplace further augment the development and capacitating of staff. She has a strong belief in the sharing of best practices with a focus on professional and personal development. Her tertiary education includes post graduate qualifications in the fields of social work and education. She is a qualified Assessor with the ETDP Seta and Educator with SACE who enjoys facilitation and training as she is a people’s person. In her free time, she loves to be active with a passion for the fitness industry and sports. Michelle is a ‘go-getter’ who loves challenges and new experiences. She is married and encourages her 2 daughters to be strong and independent women.

Feerouza
Kruger
HOD: Revenue Services

Michelle
Lehmann-Shantall
HOD: People and
Support Services
As Head of People and Support Services, Michelle holds the keys to People Services, Payroll, IT Infrastructure (Desktop and Server Support), Operations/Logistics for St Luke’s Combined Hospices. Her career includes 34 years of extensive experience across all Human Resources functionalities with specialist job profiling-, recruitment-, assessment- and employee relations and performance management. This is supported by strong project management ability achieving agreed goals; innovative approach to creating new systems/processes in addition to enhancing current practices; ability to contribute effectively both strategically as well as operationally to agreed goals; sound understanding of the value drivers within an organization; and grounded leadership skills demonstrated within tertiary-, under graduate-, postgraduate- and formal employment levels. In her free time, Michelle is an adventure junky, craves travelling and loves spending time with animals of all sizes in their natural environment. Michelle is married and has one doggie child – Murphy.