Dr. Awelani Mutshembele is a TB Platform Specialist Scientist at the South African Medical Research Council.  She completed her Ph.D. at the University of the Free State. Her expertise lies in molecular biology techniques, epidemiology, genetic diversity, and bioinformatics analysis of organisms such as parasites, fungi, TB, HIV, and COVID-19. She is also interested in traditional medicinal plants focusing on identifying new medicine to treat HIV and TB. She has supervised and mentored Ph.D., MSc, and undergraduate students registered at several Universities and the University of Technology in South Africa, Cameroon, and Ethiopia. Dr. Mutshembele is a member of the SAMRC Research Capacity Development (RCD) Committee, the SAMRC Early Investigator Programme Committee, and Exco member of the Organization for Women in Science in South Africa National Chapter, Organization for Women in Sciences Development (OWSD) and an Early Career Researcher for Nature communication peer review mentoring program. She is also passionate about tutoring and has served as a mathematics tutor for grades 8-grade 12.