Zandile Mchiza is an associate professor at the School of Public Health (SoPH) at the University of the Western Cape. Her research area sketches the scope, extent and determinants of metabolic diseases in South Africa. Her specific areas of focus are obesity, hypertension and diabetes, and the unmet need for response to these health conditions in the country. At SoPH she convenes the Descriptive Epidemiology as well as the Nutrition and Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) Epidemiology Modules. She collaborates with other African and international researchers whose interests are on nutrition and NCDs. Her publication record spans authoring and co-authoring 22 national and international conference outputs; 16 monographs and books/chapters; and 48 manuscripts that are published with ISI accredited journals. These research outputs are directed at sketching the scope and extent of metabolic related diseases; as well as developing targeted interventions to counter these diseases. She continuously translates the outcomes of her work into policy documents that are designed to influence health policy makers. She also translates this work into health-related information that gets disseminated to the broader African communities to improve nutrition and health status via various forms of media.