Ann D. Watts has for many years been actively involved in the development of psychology, in particular neuropsychology, in South Africa. She was President of the International Neuropsychological Society in 2015, the first person from a developing country to hold this position, and is a Consulting Editor of the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. Ann is Treasurer of the Pan African Psychology Union that was formed in September 2014, and a Past President of the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA) and the South African Clinical Neuropsychology Association. She Chairs PsySSA’s Division of Neuropsychology and Forensic Psychology. Ann is also a member of the South African National Committees for the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS) and served on the South African National Committees for the International Brain Research Organisation (until 2014) and International Council for Science (until 2009). She is also a member of the Professional Board for Psychology of the Health Professions Council of South Africa. Ann was Secretary-General for the 30th International Congress of Psychology held in Cape Town in July 2012. She was an Executive Member of the Union from 2008 to 2010, and Deputy Secretary-General from 2010 to 2012, when she became Secretary-General. She is the Union’s Main Representative (Psychology) to the World Health Organization (WHO), and was a member of their International Advisory Group for the Revision of the International Classification of Diseases – Tenth Revision (ICD-10) Mental and Behavioural Disorders (2008-2017) and their Consultation Group on the Classification of Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms in Neurocognitive Disorders for ICD-11 (2012-2015). She was also a member of the Rehabilitation Competency Framework Technical Work Group (2019). Ann is Editor of the International Platform of the IUPsyS’ International Journal of Psychology.
Ann completed her Ph.D in paediatric neuropsychology (1990) and a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (1991) in neuropsychology at the then University of Natal. She is a Clinical and Neuropsychologist based at Entabeni Hospital, Durban, where she focuses on her clinical and research interests in neuropsychological assessment and rehabilitation within multicultural and multilingual contexts. Ann was an expert in the field (neuropsychology) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (until 2019) and a visiting lecturer at the Universities of Zululand (until 2014) and the Free State (2015). She acts as an external examiner at a number of universities and is a reviewer for several journals. Ann has presented numerous papers and workshops, and been published within South Africa and abroad.