Kamilla Swart serves as an Account Director for Octagon South Africa. In August 2000, she was appointed to manage the recently formed Durban Events Corporation. While enrolled in the doctoral program of Curriculum and Instruction at Illinois State University (ISU), she served as a Research Associate for the Bureau of Tourism and Recreation Research (BTRR) from 1998-1999. During December 1999 she fulfilled the coursework requirements of the doctoral program, and returned to her hometown, Cape Town, to complete her dissertation.

She worked in the Sports and Facilities Directorate and her responsibilities included establishing and maintaining relationships with the national and international sport federations; the programming of events in consultation with the transport planners and the assessment and location of training venues. Kamilla also assisted in the organization of some of the sport events held in South Africa during the bid. She represented the Olympic Bid Company at the 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta and the 1997 World Athletic Championships in Athens. Kamilla’s research goal is to develop and deliver South Africa’s first post-secondary curricula devoted to sport tourism. During December 1998, Kamilla together with Doug Turco received a grant from the Extended University at ISU to develop HPR 381 Special Studies in Recreation, Tourism and Sport into an Internet-only course. Kamilla, in addition to co-authoring the first U.S. text on sport tourism, has been published in the Journal of Sport Tourism and Visions in Leisure and Business.

Kamilla has also been chosen as one of the 10 Outstanding Persons in Sport Tourism in the 1990s by the Sport Tourism International Council. She has also been awarded the Tom and Ruth Rivers scholarship, an international scholarship granted by the World Leisure and Recreation Association to outstanding students in 1999. She was awarded the Ora Bretall Scholarship for outstanding contributions to the field of education in 2000.Kamilla has a rich sporting background and has participated in both swimming and volleyball on a provincial level in the previous non-racial SACOS and NSC affiliated leagues. She played a significant role in the development of volleyball at Rhodes University, particularly women’s volleyball. She was also selected to the first unified national tertiary volleyball team in 1993.