NWU lecturer feels blessed after winning international award

A senior lecturer in Biokinetics at the NWU and the School of Human Movement Sciences and Faculty of Health Sciences, Potchefstroom Campus, recently attended a congress in Romania, where she placed second in the FIEPS New Future Leadership Award.

Dr Henriette Hammill, the wife of Reece Hammill and a mother to a 9-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy, is extremely proud of this achievement. She says she owes it to the support she continues to receive from her family.

Henriette obtained her PhD at the University of Zululand in 2013, after obtaining all her other degrees at the North-West University. She started working as a lecturer in 2011, after which she owned a biokinetic practice for three years.

She immediately fell in love with the theme of orthopaedics within the scope and field of biokinetics. Her research projects mainly cover sports, rehabilitation, orthopaedics and biomechanics. Henriette says the best part of her job is teaching students the work she loves most.

In 2016, she moved to Potchefstroom and started working as a senior lecturer in Biokinetics. All the while, she did community service, including consulting with patients, performing radio interviews on various topics within her field, giving guest lectures at selected community events and assisting in community projects.

Besides this, she also runs a few research projects. Henriette is a regular external examiner for other institutions’ final-year practical Biokinetic examinations. She was also involved in writing the curriculum for two rounds of degree rewrites. In one round, she was also the subject chair of the programme Biokinetics.

Henriette also serves on the regional committee for the North West Biokinetics Association of South Africa (BASA) with the portfolio academia. “My passion lies in orthopaedics. I am continually investigating new methods of teaching and learning to implement in my modules,” she said.

Henriette has also been described as hardworking, honest and loyal in her career. Besides her recent international award, she also obtained first place in Cape Town for best poster at the Joint SASMA and BRICSCESS congress in 2019. She won the Erasmus Grant for exchange staff members and went to Zagreb, Croatia for training in January 2020.