Shudufhadzo Musida

Shudufhadzo Musida is a South African author, advocate, and UNFPA Global Champion for Women and Girls whose work bridges advocacy, storytelling, and style. After making history as Miss South Africa 2020, Musida has emerged as a global voice for mental health, gender equity, and representation. She is the founder of Masana Group, a woman-led consultancy focused on strategic development and corporate social investment. Her collaborations span global brands including Dove, Lancôme, and Burberry.

A published author, international speaker, and thought leader, Musida leads critical conversations on wellness, leadership, identity, and social change — drawing from both lived experience and academic rigor. Musida is also the creator and host of Mindful Mondays, a podcast that explores mental fitness with honesty, depth, and nuance. The series expands beyond the mind alone to examine the systems that shape who we are, threading conversations about artificial intelligence (AI), maternal health and research gaps affecting women, representation in mental health spaces, geopolitics, power, conscious leadership, and identity.

Musida believes that mental fitness does not exist in isolation, but rather it lives within systems, culture, policy, technology, history, and all of us. Whether speaking on global stages or engaging with grassroots communities, Musida aims to remind the world that joy, intellect, vulnerability, and activism can (and must!) coexist.

She recently graduated from Columbia University with a STEM-designated Master of Public Administration (MPA) in international finance and economic theory, as well as a minor in innovation.