Dr Ian Couper is the Director of the Ukwanda Centre for Rural Health and Professor of Rural Health, Department of Global Health, Stellenbosch University (SU), since 2016. This follows nearly fourteen years at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), and in the North-West Provincial Department of Health, South Africa. He is a family physician and has spent 25 years in the public health service. He chaired the International Working Party on Rural Practice of the World Organisation of Family Doctors (WONCA) from 2007 to 2013, and was awarded the Fellowship of WONCA for his service (2018). His main research areas are human resources for rural health and rural health professions education. He has supported medical education initiatives in several African countries. He was elected to the Governing Council of AFREhealth in 2022. He is the African regional editor of Rural and Remote Health Journal and an associate editor for BMC Medical Education. He has held visiting appointments at Monash and Flinders Universities, Australia, and the University of Washington, USA. He is a visiting professor at Wits University, and an Honorary Adjunct Professor at Adelaide University, Australia. He was elected as a Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa in 2021