Emillise Rautenbach (Founder and CEO)

Emilise Rautenbach did her matric at Eldoraigne High School in Pretoria.  She completed her BA (HED) degree and diploma with distinction at the University of Pretoria.  She got married and was a language and biblical studies teacher at 3 High Schools. After 3 years of teaching her first baby daughter was born and 2 years later she had her second daughter.

After 4 years of teaching Emilise changed her work environment to work at the church as a financial clerk and facilities manager. After 12 years of marriage she was divorced.  She started her own business Human Performance Dynamics and in 2003 she changed the name of her business to DARE (Dynamic Action to Rebuild and Enhance). She received several certificates in Brain Gym©,  and completed her leadership Equip course of John Maxwell and her NBI consultant course of Dr. Kobus Neethling. She completed her Honours degree in Psychology with distinction and her Masters degree in Research Psychology with distinction. She received her International coaching accreditation (ICF) as a professional coach and her NBI Coaching certificate.

The vision of DARE is to inspire, equip and support leaders in organisations, education, churches, communities and in government.  From 2003 Emilise functioned as the CEO of Dare.  She started as a consultant in Brain Dynamics to enhance the performance of teachers, learners and families.  Through the years of experience and research in brain functioning, she grew into a Behavioural Consultant and Coach that already made a tremendous contribution Nationwide and Internationally equipping and coaching leaders in Business and Education.

Emilise managed to work in collaboration with several companies that focus on upliftment and change.  Dare is currently part of the Kingdom Nation Initiative of specialist service providers. Learn more about the Kingdom Nation Initiative by viewing the video below:

Emilise has a missionary heart and fulfilled her calling in prayer outreaches and missionary work in Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Brazil.  She also did leadership training and coaching in Brazil.

She received several gold & silver certificates in Eisteddfods for singing, playing piano and violin. She played lead parts in operettas: “Die Witperd Herberg”; “Skrikkeljanie” and “Man van Smarte”.

She was soloist in the famous aCapella choir for 22 years. For the last 5 years of the existence of aCapella, she did the organization, program planning and choreography of the group.  She toured with aCapella through Europe several times, where she performed as soloist in Israel, France, the Netherlands and Germany.

Besides her singing talent, she also received training in Violin, Piano and Music Theory.  During 1999 – 2000, she toured with ATEOSS (The theology men’s choir of the African Protestant Church), through the Eastern and Western Cape, and the Free State. Because of the success of the first tour, they recorded several albums together.

She recorded her first single album at the beginning of 2003.

Currently she performs at morning teas and breakfasts while giving talks on different topics. Periodically she also performs with other singers and artists.

Elise Steenkamp (Trainer, social media coordinator and co-director of DARE 4 Excellence NPC and NPO)

Elise completed her matric with 3 distinctions at Hoërskool Garsfontein. She got her BA fashion Design Degree and started her own business “Naalde-Koker”.  After her 5 year journey in the fashion world; with a lot of experience as a business owner, she decided to start her studies in B.Ed Foundation phase. It was a difficult transition but she strongly experienced that God is calling her to make a difference in Education.  She completed her B.Ed degree with distinction.

Currently she is part of the ministry internship at Every Nation, making a huge difference in the lives of teenagers and young people.

She has an extraordinary creative talent and completed some beautiful paintings.  She loves cooking and loves entertaining people with the most delicious dishes.

She influenced a lot of teenagers through her True Beauty movement. She has an intense skill to teach and inspire young people and changed a lot of lives.

Currently Elise is part of our team that inspire, equip and coach leaders in Education.

Lolla Cronje (Co-director of DARE 4 Excellence NPC and NPO)

Cornelia (Lolla) comes with almost three decades of teaching experience to different age groups, ranging from intermediate phase right through to the FET phase. During this time, she taught at various schools, mostly in the Independent Examination Board (IEB) private school cluster. She has taught at government schools as well, and had the opportunity to teach at erstwhile “township” schools. She also has significant experience of remedial teaching and applied the appropriate teaching methods successfully during most of her teaching career. She was often the teacher that was able to get the best results and progress from children where many other teachers were about to give up. Earlier in her teaching career she lectured Geography at Durban College of Education to students qualifying in the Intermediate and Senior Phases.

Lolla comes with a BA Ed. Degree from the University of the Free State and also later completed an Honours degree in Geography from UNISA. She was a sub-examiner for the IEB Geography cluster and was involved with setting the preliminary exam papers for several years.

Her main interest lies in a different direction- she has been involved in missionary work on a part-time basis for many years and have been a participant in several local and international prayer programs, including the Turn to God, Macedonian Project and Jericho Walls prayer ministry. She has recently enrolled for the B.Th. degree and has just completed her first year.

In her free time, she enjoys a good book or some knitting or sewing.

Lolla has been part of the middle to senior management teams of most of the schools where she worked and has a good understanding of corporate governance. Her high ethical values and straight forward manner will be a great contribution to the management team.

She is married to dr. Pieter Cronje, an agriculture management consultant and they have three children- Roche (1987), Carla (1992) and Madelene (1996).

Rina Steenkamp (Admin Clerk)

Rina Steenkamp worked for three years at the post office after she passed matric.

After getting married, she held a post at Dougless Primary as secretary and later at Pullenshope Primary. She was a farmer’s wife for about 10 years and farmed with meat merino’s and supervised her husband’s Brahman Stud while working at the mine. She is blessed with 3 beautiful daughters and 10 grandchildren.

She moved to Pretoria and worked as a receptionist for two years at a company. Then, for 10 years she worked as an estate agent and then started her own agency and operated it for 3 years. For the past few years she has done interesting typing and transcription work for people in many different professions as well as for postgraduate students.

She played tennis and squash, did pottery and loves gardening and likes to watch cricket, rugby and tennis on TV.