From intern to executive director: Congratulating Carla Pereira

JET is pleased to announce the appointment of Carla Pereira to the JET Board. The Board provides leadership for carrying out JET’s mission and Carla's appointment has been made to strengthen this essential function.

Carla’s story is indeed inspiring – her career with JET began in March 2002 when she joined the organisation as a research intern. From these humble beginnings, she has moved up through the ranks and her strong work ethic, commitment, determination and intellect have led to her current appointment.  

Carla has a Master’s degree in Research Psychology and is an experienced senior project manager with extensive knowledge of research methods and data analysis in the education sector. She has high level experience in planning, project conceptualisation and management and research. Her experience in leading and designing large-scale research projects involving assessment methodologies and teacher training facilitated her roles in several important large scale national and provincial evaluation studies, including the 2007 Systemic Evaluation of Grade 3 pupils for the then national Department of Education;, the 2008/9 Gauteng Provincial Assessment study, the external evaluation of the Western Cape’s Literacy Numeracy Implementation project and the 2010-2014 Gauteng Provincial Assessment project. Carla was also part of the National School Effectiveness Study that tracked 16 000 learners across 268 schools in eight provinces. She has, in addition, led various small mixed-methods evaluation studies. Her most recent achievements include the successful evaluation of the JP Morgan New Skills for Youth Development pilot programme in Orange Farm. Carla is currently Programme Director for a large-scale, R510million school development programme being implemented in 110 schools for Anglo American South Africa.

Added to this, Carla is a highly experienced and respected organisational leader. As a Strategic Programmes Officer she has been responsible for defining and executing operational programmes in line with JET’s strategic plans and annual operating objectives and her brief has included business development, financial management, Human Resources, Office Management and Knowledge Management and deputising for the CEO in his absence. 

"Dreams do come true, but not without the help of others, a good education, a strong work ethic and the courage to learn, I am both humbled and honoured to serve in this capacity and I look forward to all the excitement and challenges that lie ahead," commented Carla.