WACI Team
Andrew Comrie / Director of Fair Access
Andrew has worked at the Conservatoire for 12 years and is the strategic lead for the RCS’ Fair Access work and the suite of postgraduate learning and teaching qualifications.
Andrew’s career in education spans 37 years. During this time, he has held academic and senior management posts in both the College and HE Sectors in the UK. Andrew is a specialist in widening access and before joining RCS, was Director of the Edinburgh and East of Scotland Articulation Hub. Andrew’s other areas of expertise include curriculum design and technology-enhanced learning and teaching, and he has worked in the past as a consultant, director and project evaluator /critical friend for a variety of e-learning and curriculum design projects across the UK.
Nationally, Andrew and has played a significant role in the development of a new quality standards framework and professional accreditation scheme for widening access and widening participation practitioners for Scotland’s community of access and participation practitioners (SCAPP), an organisation setup by the Scottish Government to support widening access to higher education.
Jesse Paul / Head of Fair Access
Jesse Paul is the Head of Fair Access at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She has worked as a Teaching Artist for over 30 years across the UK in a wide range of formal and informal educational and community settings. These include higher educational institutions, theatres and hospitals. Fair Access has always been the core of her work.
Some of Jesse’s favourite things are: Going to shows like Sacekripa, reading books like To Throw Away Unopened by Viv Albertine, going to festivals like Counterflows and looking for new music on Rough Trade.
Becca Skeoch / WACI Coordinator
Becca is our Administrator here at WACI and first became interested in the widening access game when she was involved in the Highland Youth Arts Hub back when she was a student, studying Applied Music with UHI.
When she’s not here at the RCS, Becca works as a freelance musician. You can check out her main projects, Tannara and Heisk.
Jo Kalinowska / WACI Coordinator
Yvonne McLellan / WACI TEL Coordinator
Yvonne McLellan is the Technology Enhanced Learning Co-ordinator for both WACI and Transitions here at RCS. She is also a music publisher. Starting her musical life in brass bands as a Flugelhorn player, Yvonne has been active in the music industries since 1997, working with companies such as Island Records, SpinnUp (Universal Music), V2 Music, Native Publishing and Lost Art Agency.
Working in A&R, music publishing, marketing and international, Yvonne has used her experience and passion in community work, sharing knowledge and promoting opportunities in the Creative Industries in education with experience of teaching in FE/HE since 2003.
Some of Yvonne’s favourite things are: bands like Declan McKenna, Gus Gus, The Cure, lots of electronic music and making things.
Olivia Mears Young / WACI Administrator
Olivia is our current Administrator here at WACI. She first developed a passion for the importance of widening access to the arts during her time studying a History of Art degree and her involvement in student theatre.
She hopes to continue to build on this passion and experience to develop a career in helping to make the arts as accessible as possible!
Some of Olivia’s favourite things are: painting, being out in the great outdoors, going to the theatre, attempting to bake, and listening to her all-time favourite artist- Kate Bush.
Louise Brown / Fair Access Outreach and Engagement Officer
Louise has worked in applied and community theatre in a range of settings. She has taught in Secondary schools and in Further and Higher Education, including at the University of the West of Scotland and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She worked as a freelance arts practitioner before joining the Citizens Theatre, where she worked as Creative Learning Officer for fourteen years. Whilst at the Citz, Louise gained her master’s from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Louise believes passionately in the power of the arts to make social change.
Some of Louise’s favourite things are: swimming in the sea, watching films by Paul Thomas Anderson, singing along to Hollywood musicals and La La Land, listening to Nick Cave and that moment in the theatre when the lights go down and everyone goes quiet.
Jamie Lee Aitken / Fair Access Coordinator
Jamie Lee Aitken is the Fair Access Coordinator at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She has worked as a Freelance Drama tutor within the community arts sector for 8 years. Coming from the East End of Glasgow, Jamie Lee has dedicated her practice to ensure that the old adage “life’s not fair” changes and that everyone gets a fair shot at doing what they are passionate about.
Some of Jamie Lee’s favourite things are: Anything ancient Greek related, attending the theatre, especially The Curious Incident of the Dog in the NightTime, catching up on pop culture and taking long walks in forests.
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