Prof Ulene Schiller

Ulene Schiller started her career as a registered social worker in child protection and immediately continued with her postgraduate studies. She held numerous positions at Child Protection Organisations and Child and Youth Care Centres that laid the foundation for venturing into her Private Practice. This inspired her to pursue her PhD in Forensic Social Work, where she started her academic career, focusing on practice training of social work students and the University of Pretoria. In 2014 she started her academic career at the University of Fort Hare as a lecturer and currently serves as an associate professor in the Department of Social Work and Social Development. Her lecturing is centred on third - and fourth-year social work students, specifically focusing on modules in Employee Assistance Programmes, Integrated and Reflective Social Work and Introduction to Research. Alongside her teaching responsibilities, she is supervising a number of Master’s and PhD Candidates. Her research niche area is in Child Protection, Forensic Social Work services and Social Innovation, with several publications in this field.  She has served the University of Fort Hare in several leadership positions, namely the Head of the Department of Social Work and Social Development, Director of the Eastern Cape Audio Visual Centre(ECAVC), and currently the Deputy Dean of Teaching and Learning with her term ending 2024.