Prof Sharon Kleintjes is a clinical psychologist registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa, with 30 years’ experience working in public mental health services in South Africa. She currently holds the Vera Grover Chair in Intellectual Disability at the University of Cape Town where she leads the Division of Intellectual Disability Mental Health in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health. Her academic work includes undergraduate teaching and postgraduate research supervision in mental health, intellectual disability and recovery-oriented mental health care . She also provides strategic support to public mental health service development for people with intellectual disability in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Her research focuses on public mental health policy and service development for people with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities, advocacy and self-advocacy by mental health users and their supporters and promoting personal recovery—supporting processes that enable people to develop meaning and purpose beyond their disabilities, and facilitates their involvement in public processes which impact on their quality of life.