Dr Nondumiso Makhunga-Stevenson: Healthcare Leadership

  • World’s first medical doctor certified in Ubuntu Coaching
  • Over 20 years of experience in medicine with leadership roles across non-profits, clinical research , private practice, and pharmaceutical sector.
  • Speaker on healthcare leadership and clinician and health care worker wellbeing
  • Host of a podcast spotlighting purpose and identity in medicine of doctors
  • Delivers transformative keynotes blending systems thinking, storytelling, and Ubuntu philosophy.

Travel & Fee Range:**

  • Travels from: Johannesburg
  • **Fee range: 35,001 - 50,000

Keynote Topics

In an era where AI, burnout, and uncertainty are reshaping healthcare, healthcare providers face a more personal question: how do I lead myself through change without losing clarity, purpose, or hope? This keynote is intentionally crafted to focus on self-leadership as the foundational ability to navigate disruption, not by offering prescriptive career advice, but by strengthening the inner resources needed to adapt with purpose.

Designed to resonate with both early-career healthcare workers and those approaching transition or legacy-defining decisions, Dr Nondumiso Makhunga-Stevenson invites the audience to reimagine their careers as unfolding seasons. Rather than resisting disruption, doctors will be encouraged to embrace it as a catalyst for personal growth, evolve their mindset with each season, and intentionally design a life and career aligned with deeper meaning.

Takeaway Messages:

  • Reframe disruption (including AI and rapid change) as an opportunity for growth.
  • Recognise your career as seasonal, requiring evolving mindsets and self-trust.
  • Lead yourself first, with self-awareness and curiosity to align your path with your purpose.

This empowering talk re-centres agency, resilience, and intentionality as core competencies for modern medical careers.

Leadership in medicine often falls into familiar patterns of hierarchy, control, and perfectionism. While these approaches may have once seemed necessary, they can now hinder collaboration, trust, and wellbeing within healthcare teams. This keynote challenges doctors to rethink traditional leadership habits and embrace more human-centred, inclusive approaches.

Dr Nondumiso Makhunga-Stevenson explores common leadership pitfalls that physicians encounter such as relying solely on technical expertise, avoiding vulnerability, and sustaining rigid power dynamics, and offers practical insights for leading with empathy and authenticity. Drawing on Ubuntu philosophy and evidence-based leadership principles, attendees will learn how to foster psychological safety, repair relational ruptures, and build cultures of shared responsibility.

Whether you are a new or experienced leader, this session provides actionable strategies to shift from control to connection, creating environments where teams flourish and patient care improves.

Takeaway Messages:

  • Avoid reliance on hierarchy; lead through empathy and collaboration.
  • Embrace vulnerability as a strength, not a weakness.
  • Build psychologically safe teams that encourage openness and trust.
  • Apply Ubuntu principles to foster shared leadership and community.
  • Recognise leadership as a relational practice, not just a technical role.

Dr Nondumiso Makhunga-Stevenson is a physician leadership development and executive coach, international speaker, and podcast host who brings a fresh, deeply compassionate lens to the future of healthcare leadership. With more than two decades in medicine, she has held leadership roles in international non-profits, private practice, and the pharmaceutical industry , positioning her as a […]

Dr Nondumiso Makhunga-Stevenson is a physician leadership development and executive coach, international speaker, and podcast host who brings a fresh, deeply compassionate lens to the future of healthcare leadership. With more than two decades in medicine, she has held leadership roles in international non-profits, private practice, and the pharmaceutical industry , positioning her as a powerful voice in the global movement to rehumanise healthcare.

Holding an MBChB and MSc, Dr. Makhunga-Stevenson is the world’s first medical doctor certified in Ubuntu Coach. This groundbreaking distinction shapes her coaching and speaking with the African philosophy of shared humanity, dignity, and connectedness. Her work integrates systems thinking, executive coaching, and storytelling to address the moral injury, identity fragmentation, and disconnection experienced by many healthcare workers today.

Dr Nondumiso Makhunga-Stevenson

She is known for creating transformational experiences for healthcare professionals, corporate leaders, and mission-driven organizations. Her keynotes offer not just inspiration but actionable insight. With warmth and authority, she helps audiences’ question long-held beliefs about success, hierarchy, and healing, while guiding them toward clarity, courage, and purpose-driven leadership.

Dr Nondumiso Makhunga-Stevenson’s signature speaking style is both grounded and catalytic. She speaks to the soul of her audience while offering practical strategies that meet the demands of complex systems. Her ability to weave data, story, and Ubuntu wisdom makes her a sought-after speaker for events focused on leadership, wellbeing for healthcare providers and the future of healthcare.

Beyond the stage, she is a regular guest on podcasts and hosts her own series where she facilitates honest, often difficult conversations about purpose, power, and professional identity in medicine with healthcare provider guests.

At the intersection of medicine, coaching, and Ubuntu, Dr Nondumiso Makhunga-Stevenson is more than a speaker , she is a force for healing. Through her work, she challenges audiences and institutions alike to move beyond performance and perfectionism, and toward compassion and community.

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