Rodney Eksteen

Rodney Eksteen is a Senior Lecturer in Humanitarian, Emergency & Disaster Management within the Faculty of Arts and Society. His work bridges academic research and practical field experience, focusing on disaster risk reduction in vulnerable communities, particularly in informal settlements. He holds a doctorate in Fire and Emergency Management from Oklahoma State University, alongside degrees in Health Sciences and Business Administration.

Eksteen co-founded the Burn Foundation of Southern Africa, addressing childhood burn prevention and survivor care. His research emphasizes transdisciplinary approaches to mitigate disaster risks in rapidly growing informal urban areas. Key projects include evaluating fire safety interventions in South African informal settlements and a current initiative exploring sociocultural challenges in disaster victim identification (2024–2027).

His research outputs span fire engineering analyses, community engagement models, and pandemic response evaluations. Notable work includes studies on smoke alarm implementations in Cape Town (2022) and fire dynamics in shack settlements (2017). His contributions align with UN Sustainable Development Goals targeting poverty reduction and sustainable communities.

Eksteen supervises postgraduate research and has authored/co-authored over 14 peer-reviewed articles, contributing to journals like International Journal of Disaster Risk Science and Fire Safety Journal. His work highlights interdisciplinary solutions for global disaster resilience challenges.