Andrea Marais-Potgieter

My career started off as a reporter, after completing my BA degree in Journalism and HON Psychology (CUM) at University of Johannesburg in South Africa. I subsequently completed my MA degree in Research Psychology (CUM) and started working as a consumer psychologist registered with the American Association of Consumer Psychologists. I worked on research projects in South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, Malawi, Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Egypt, Tanzania, Kenya, Swaziland, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Sudan, Angola and Ethiopia. I earned my PhD at University of the Witwatersrand. After becoming Vegan and reading The voice of the Earth by Theordore Roszak I experienced a significant existential crisis which led me to pursue a PhD in Psychology focusing on Ecopsychology. I was awarded a scholarship by the Southern African Systems Analysis Centre which is funded by government and that works in association with IIASA, Austria. I do volunteer work with children and nature, I also volunteer to save the endangered Western Leopard Toad and sit as a committee member on our local environmental action group. I am in the process of forming the Nature Nexus Academy as the IES School for South Africa. Visit my personal website at http://www.drnaturenexus.com