Liesl Zuhlke is the current Vice-President Extramural Unit and Internal Portfolio at the South African Medical Research Council and directs the Children’s Heart Disease Research Unit focused on research into Children’s Heart Diseases of relevance in Africa, which includes the PROTEA project based at the Cape Heart Insitute. She has over 250 publications, conference proceedings and book chapters, her h-index is 58, she has been cited over 74 000 times and was a finalist in the Women in Science Award of South Africa. She was the 2018 recipient of the MRC/Dfid African Research Leader Award, the Winner of the NRF award for Social Impact in Research, the International Metrodora Award for Public Health and Research and the UCT Vice-Chancellors Alan Pfifer Award for research. She was recently inducted into the prestigious UCT College of Fellows, UCT’s highest academic honour and is a Member of the South African Academy of Sciences (MAssaf). She recently was inducted into The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, European Society of cardiology and American Heart Association. She is NRF B-1 rated. 

She has achieved the highest leadership positions within cardiology in South Africa; internationally she serves as the President of Reach, is a member of the board of World Heart Federation and Non-Communicable Diseases Alliance, International scientific advisory board of Children's Heart Link and an executive member of SAVAC (Strep A Vaccine Global Consortium).  She is an active and vociferous advocate for the advancement and empowerment of equity and women in medicine: including being on the Lancet Commission for Women in Cardiovascular Disease.