Meet our staff
Learn more about our dedicated team at ISA by clicking on the biographies below.
Our team
Meet the talented and dedicated staff at the heart of the ISA community. Our teachers are mostly UK citizens, but with a huge range of teaching experience from international schools around the world. Every member of our team is committed to the highest standards of international education. Most importantly, they combine a real passion for their subjects with a deep commitment to caring for each of our students.
Nick little
Nick grew up in Brighton on the south coast of England, and then read history at Pembroke College, Oxford. He went completed a postgraduate degree in law at Sussex before a gap year teaching English language and culture in China changed the course of his life. Not only did it become the first year of a new career, but he got married as well.
Some 30 years later, Nick has three bi-cultural children, with strong connections to the UK and China. After his formal teacher training, he taught in a comprehensive school in Lancashire. When his eldest turned seven, the Little family took the big step of returning to China – and what was intended to be just two years teaching in an international school near Shanghai became 16, and Nick ended up running it!
He joined as ISA’s head in August 2018, the year his youngest child started university in the UK.
Nick Little
Head of School
Kevin Hawkins
Kevin joined ISA in July 2025 as COO, having spent six years as Head of Finance at Millfield School in Somerset.
He trained as a chartered accountant with PwC in London, specialising in audit and corporate taxation, with other roles including banking (JPMorgan Chase), pharmaceutical (Boehringer Ingelheim) and legal (Aldridge Brownlee). Kevin is a graduate of the University of Reading, where he studied psychology.
His family are originally from the Isle of Bute.
Kevin Hawkins
Chief Operating Officer
Morio Kajiwara
Morio has had three separate stints working at ISA so we know he must love it! He started back in 1998 as a classroom and library assistant and EAL teacher and since returning in August 2009, he’s been a classroom teacher, specialist teacher, coach, curriculum coordinator, assistant principal and now principal of our Elementary School.
Hailing from Berkeley, California, Morio studied history at Brown University, then Education (MA) at University of California, Berkeley (with a multiple-subjects credential in California). He has also taught all grade levels – from kindergarten to Grade 8 – and maths, science and computing in middle schools in Kuwait and Thailand.
His three children all graduated from ISA who went on to UK universities to study international relations, graphic design and biotechnology/microbiology.
Morio Kajiwara
Preschool and Elementary School Principal
Stuart McAlpine
Stuart quite literally grew up in schools as his father was a housemaster and headmaster. He has always loved the progressive and international model of education committed to holistic development that helps all learners to thrive and find purpose. He studied at Oxford, York and Edinburgh universities before starting teaching at Sevenoaks School and Millfield, then moving to the United World Colleges in Singapore (UWCSEA).
Stuart has combined school leadership and curriculum work with his wider interests in educational programme development and policy. His experience includes time as founding principal of Green School New Zealand and three years as senior director at the LEGO Foundation in Denmark (where he played with a LOT of LEGO!). He moved to ISA while undertaking a doctorate with Cambridge University's PEDAL centre, focused on the curriculum improvement cycle of Education Scotland.
He and his wife Francesca have three boys, who have all studied at ISA.
Stuart MacAlpine
Middle and High School Principal
Andrea Taylor
Andrea started her career at ISA on a student work placement in 1990, before being offered a role as an early years practitioner in our kindergarten in August that year. She studied nursery nursing at Aberdeen Technical College and graduated with a BA in Childhood Practice at the University of Aberdeen, where she also gained a post-graduate certificate in early years education. Andrea joined the ISA Preschool in 2010.
She has two grown up children.
Andrea Taylor
Head of Preschool
Valerie DeGraw
Our guidance counsellor for students in kindergarten through to 12th grade, Valerie swapped sunny Santa Cruz, California for Aberdeen – less sunny but still beautiful! Previously a classroom teacher, she holds a California Masters in school counselling and specialised licensure in school counselling and therapy, academic progression and social work.
Valerie enjoys working with ISA families and students of all ages for holistic wellbeing and academic aspirations. Her son and daughter graduated from ISA and attended universities in the UK.
Valerie DeGraw
Guidance Counsellor
Paul Bertolotto
Paul originally hails from Edinburgh but now lives in Laurencekirk in Aberdeenshire. He studied at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with a BEd Hons degree, then undertook his Chartered Teacher, Educational Masters (MEd) and doctorate (EdD unfinished) at the same university.
He previously taught boys only at Edinburgh Academy before the school went co-ed, accepting a secondment opportunity to become an education lecturer and researcher at the University of Edinburgh. After returning to Edinburgh Academy, he held various roles before becoming depute headteacher. He moved to Aberdeen to take up a headteacher post at an independent school then moved to ISA in 2016.
His son and daughter both attend ISA.
Paul Bertolotto
Preschool and Elementary School Assistant Principal
Sarah Cusworth
Sarah is originally from North Yorkshire. She studied criminology for her undergraduate degree at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University and gained her teaching certificate at the University of Huddersfield, as well as an MSc in psychology from the University of Liverpool and an MEd from Framingham State University in the United States.
Before joining ISA in 2019, Sarah worked in international schools in Guatemala, Malaysia, China, Mexico and South Korea.
She is mum to a son who is a student at ISA.
Sarah Cusworth
Middle and High School Assistant Principal
Gayle Veitch
Gayle is our specialist in IT and is passionate about engaging students in exciting changes in technology, particularly AI. She is from Peterculter, just a few miles from ISA, and studied Computer Science at Heriot-Watt University then secondary teaching at the University of Edinburgh.
Before joining us in 2016, Gayle taught only boys, working at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh and Dulwich College in London before returning to Aberdeen.
She has three daughters, who are all students at ISA.
Gayle Veitch
Director of IT
Jennifer Purpura
Originally from Twisp, a small town in Washington State, Jennifer attended high school in Colorado. She holds a BSc in Mathematics from Pepperdine University in California and a MSc in International Education from State University of NY. Her first teaching experience was in Los Angeles then she moved to Scotland to teach at ISA (then the American School of Aberdeen), before teaching in Oman for 11 years and Tunisia for two years.
She returned to Aberdeen in 2013, where both of her children were born and began their international education at ISA.
Jennifer Purpura
IBDP Co-ordinator
Diane McBain
Diane now lives in Laurencekirk but was born in Manchester. She has worked in the education sector and schools for 17 years, supporting students all over Aberdeenshire.
She has worked at ISA since March 2022 and enjoys meeting and working with our families. Diane has a son, who is studying in Liverpool.
Diane McBain
Elementary Student and Admin Assistant
Alison Yesildag
Originally from London, Alison worked for an NGO in London before moving to Turkey to work in an international school in Izmir for 10 years. She returned to London in 2019 before moving to Aberdeen, where she joined the team at ISA in 2020.
Alison has one son.
Alison Yesildag
Middle and High School Administrator
Krista Lamming
Originally from Canada, Krista has been at ISA for 12 years. She has experience in business management, having managed a local tourist business for 10 years with more than 20 staff. She spent 18 months travelling before settling in Scotland and also managed a golf course for two seasons so is right at home here in the birthplace of golf!
Krista runs a creative play after-school club at the school for children aged 5-7 and is the parent of a son who attends ISA.
Krista Lamming
Head of Admissions
Autumn Ordonez
Autumn is originally from sunny Sacramento, California, and brings more than 20 years of experience supporting communities through staffing and recruitment, college admissions and administrative work. She and her husband moved to Aberdeen in 2015 and Autumn joined ISA’s admission team in 2017.
What started as a plan to live here for only a few years turned into so much more – having fallen in love with the city and the ISA community, she is now a very proud UK citizen.
Autumn Ordonez
Senior Admissions Administrator
Zou Fraser
Zou is originally from Edinburgh but has lived overseas for most of her life, bringing experience in teaching in Brussels, Malé, Helsingborg, London and Dubai to ISA. She graduated with a BA in Primary Education from the University of Northampton and completed a MA degree in communications and PR in Brussels.
Zou joined the ISA team as an EAL teacher in 2019 before working in kindergarten for four years then taking up the post of Encore! Director, with responsibility for all after school programmes.
Zou Fraser
Encore! Director
Mark DeGraw
The Astroturf or gym hall is where you’ll usually find Mark, who also runs the ISA summer camp each year! He grew up in southern California and has a multiple subjects teaching credential from California, and a Masters in educational administration from Michigan State University.
Mark is passionate about inclusive sports for students of all ages and abilities, and he’s taught in international schools in North America, the Middle East, Asia and Europe. In addition to teaching PE at ISA, Mark enjoys leading the International Schools Sports Association (ISSA) for our international tournaments within Europe.
Mark is married to our guidance counsellor Valerie.
Mark DeGraw
Athletic Director
Heather Barker
Heather is our resident Irish dancer, having grown up in the seaside town of Spanish Point in County Clare, Ireland – known as the heart of Irish traditional music and dance.
She has worked at ISA for 12 years, teaching grade 6 English, social studies and health before moving into a role as our University and Career Counsellor.
Before moving to Aberdeen, Heather spent seven years teaching both at the elementary and middle school level at Dubai American Academy. She also taught for two years in Ireland after completing her Masters of Education qualification at the University of Notre Dame in the US, as well as earning her certificate of College Counselling through UC San Diego.
Heather’s three children attend ISA.