Dr Christi Niesing started her career at the NWU in 2008 with the appointment as project manager of the Holding Hands income-generating community project. In the time 2008-2016 she developed 4 new sub-projects with a sustainable development outcome in the larger North-West Province. Under her management the project received funding from various corporate funders to develop the projects. She received recognition for her contribution towards excellence in community engagement from various institutions. She is currently a lecturer at AUTHeR (Africa Unit for Transdisciplinary Research at the Faculty of Health Sciences), Faculty of Health Sciences NWU. Her research focus is the facilitation of sustainable community development through development interventions with a special interest in the development of instruments to measure and evaluate real impact of interventions over time. She received her PhD in Business administration at the NWU in February 2017. In her thesis, a conceptual framework for sustainable community development the she utilized the case study of the Holding Hands income-generating community project to study the development, implementation and functioning of an income-generating community project to develop a framework for the development and implementation of future income-generating community projects. She is currently the manager of the LIFEPLAN® programme, a holistic approach to life skill development. She is the co-creator of the Social Greenhouse® process that enables research-informed community-based projects across disciplinary boundaries offering realistic solutions to real-life challenges.