Voices

Neil Butcher – Director

Neil began his work in educational planning with the South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE) from 1993 to 2001 and now as Director of Neil Butcher & Associates. He has worked with various educational institutions (including UNESCO and the Commonwealth of Learning), assisting with transformation and research efforts that focus on effectively harnessing the potential of distance education methods, educational technology, and OER. Neil has travelled extensively through the developing world conducting research on educational policy, higher education, distance education, education management information systems, and educational technology for a range of organizations, governments, and donors. He works with OER Africa as the project’s OER Strategist and is also currently consulting for the World Bank on a range of project activities across several African countries and in Asia. 

Kirsty von Gogh – Project Manager

Kirsty joined NBA as a project manager in 2016 and since then her work has focused on early literacy and open licensing for a project funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (see our other Voices Interview with a Hewlett Foundation representative), but she also collaborates on NBA’s work with OER Africa. Her work on various projects includes research, editing, writing, and content development with a focus on open learning. Kirsty is responsible for communications and social media activities at NBA. Before joining NBA, Kirsty worked in educational publishing, producing titles for South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia. Kirsty has extensive experience publishing print and digital textbooks, online assessment and courses, and resource materials for schools’ curricula across all grades and subjects.