Prof Masekela obtained her undergraduate medical training at Wits University in 1997 and completed her internship and community service at Polokwane/Mankweng Hospital complex. She then completed her postgraduate training with a Masters in Paediatrics at the University of Pretoria in 2005, after which she went on to sub-specialize in Paediatric Pulmonology at the University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium and at the University of Pretoria. She was the first Paediatric Pulmonology Sub-specialist by Examination from the Colleges of Medicine in 2007. She then completed her PhD (Paediatrics) titled “ Chronic inflammatory lung disease in children with human immunodeficiency virus- Epidemiological considerations, aetiological determinants and the efficacy of low dose erythromycin in bronchiectasis”; which she completed at the University of Pretoria in 2012. She was also elected as a Fellow of the College of Chest Physicians by peer-review. Her research interests are bronchiectasis in children; both in HIV- infected children as well as in cystic fibrosis in non-Caucasians in Africa. She also has an interest in lung physiological testing, particularly lung function testing in children and the determination of normative lung reference equations in African children and adults. She has published 18 peer-reviewed publications and ISBN accredited journals. She has written two book chapters on respiratory diseases in children in the tropics in an international Infectious Disease textbook and the European Respiratory Society Monograph. She has presented her research and given invited lectures at national and international pulmonology congresses, winning the prize for the best abstract for the MECOR and Fellow-in-training award for the best presentation at the American Thoracic Society Meeting in New Orleans 2010 and the best poster presentation award from the International Paediatric Pulmonology Congress, Portugal in 2013. She is a passionate teacher and has been involved in both under-graduate and post-graduate teaching and has supervised 4 successful Master in Medicine in Paediatric students and is currently supervising two PhD students. She has been involved in the training of 7 successful Paediatric Pulmonology fellows. She has also initiated a Paediatric Pulmonology Outreach Project to Polokwane Hospital, which resulted in the successful training of a Paediatric Pulmonologist who is currently working in the province. She acted as a reviewer for local paediatric and pulmonology journals and the European Journal of Paediatrics. She is an executive member of the South African Thoracic Society and is at present the past chairperson of the National Asthma Education Program. She is the secretary of the Pan African Thoracic Society and is on the scientific advisory committee of the South African Cystic Fibrosis Association.

Bronchiectasis in children, lung physiological testing