Lesley Wood is a research professor in the Faculty of Education at North-West University and was the founder and director of a research entity, Community-based Educational Research (COMBER). She continues that work through her appointment as Extraordinary Professor in COMBER and ETDP SETA Research Chair in Early Childhood. She is an NRF-rated researcher whose interests lie in researching participatory ways to facilitate psycho-social wellness within various educational communities, with a particular focus on action research for professional, institutional, and community learning and development. She has received international recognition for her work in action research and HIV and AIDS, having been awarded an Honorary Doctorate in 2014 by Moravian College, Pennsylvania, USA. In 2021 she was inducted into the Academy of Science, South Africa (ASSAf) and the international Academy of Community Engaged Scholarship (ACES).

• Psycho-social wellbeing
• Community-based education
• Participatory research
• HIV and AIDS in education
• Inclusive education
• Early childhood education

She has published widely (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=GD-eFwIAAAAJ&hl=en) and has received several internationally funded grants for her projects, as well as holding honorary research appointments at international institutions at various times. She has pioneered community-based research in South Africa through her leadership roles and capacity-building initiatives and through the publication of several books and special issues in the field.

Orcid no: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9139-1507.