Staff

These are our real life superheroes, dedicated to overpowering illiteracy wherever they find it!

Claire Heffernan
Managing Director

Claire began work at the Super Power Agency in 2019 and has taken on the role of Volunteer Coordinator, Programme Manager and now Managing Director. She has 15 years’ experience in education, including many years as a classroom teacher, and passionately believes in allowing young people to be creative in their learning.

In her role as Managing Director, Claire is responsible for the overall direction of the Super Power Agency, fundraising and the development of the team.

Outside of work, Claire enjoys reading, writing, painting, walks on the beach and visiting new cities.

Claire’s favourite words are suspicious and surreptitious. She regularly misspells the word necessary.
Rebecca Low
Programme Coordinator

Rebecca joined the Super Power Agency in 2023 as Programme Coordinator. She has over a decade of experience working in roles across the arts, education and third sector around Scotland. Rebecca loves any project that involves working with people and words, so this role with the Super Power Agency is pretty much her ideal gig!

When she’s not working, Rebecca can usually be found hanging out in her local coffee shop with a book, out for a windswept walk on the beach or checking out the newest tasty food spot in town.

As a writer herself, Rebecca has plenty of favourite words including coorie, kerfuffle and mellifluous.
Maria Bruno
Volunteer Coordinator

Maria has many years of experience in the charity sector and is very passionate about giving young people the chance to expand their lives and imagination through the power of writing and storytelling.

Her role is to take care of the Super Power Agency’s family of volunteers who help us make the magic happen.

When not working, Maria loves writing, reading and travelling to new places on a mission to find the ultimate bakery!

Her favourite word is cappuccino but she recently fell in love with the word teabag too. She constantly mispronounces and misspells the word development.
Nelly Heffernan
Chief Wellbeing Officer

Nelly is a key member of our team and works as our Chief Wellbeing Officer.

Within the Super Power Agency, it is Nelly’s job to visit schools, attend workshops and encourage young people to mix and chat. She will also show up at trainings and other events. Love and affection are her super powers. She may be small but she makes a big difference.

Outside of work, Nelly lives a charmed life with her human Claire and her mischievous cat brother Haggis. Nelly’s favourite things include fluffy blankets, napping, and drinking tea. Take a look at our social media and you will find she is ‘paws down’ the most popular member of our team.

Her favourite word is squirrel.

Our Board

These heroes help us be the best we can be...

Maxine Sloss
Founder
Superpower: creative connections

Maxine founded the Super Power Agency in 2016. An artist and interior designer, Maxine has worked in London, New York and Edinburgh, most recently establishing the MHS Studio where she has a portfolio of Scottish and international clients. Maxine’s commitment to the Super Power Agency is rooted in her own experience of dyslexia. With her finger firmly on the pulse of Scotland’s arts scene, Maxine thrives when making connections between artists, writers, craftspeople and creatives; she always has an eye for an inventive fundraiser or an opportunity to celebrate our work.

Maxine’s favourite word is joy, because it is easy to spell and the world needs more of it! She cheerfully misspells pretty much everything elseo.
Valerie Lindsay
Chair
Superpower: marketing and public relations

Valerie chairs the Board of the Super Power Agency. She has more than 25 years' international marketing experience, and runs her own marketing consultancy providing advice and troubleshooting to a diverse range of organisations, including many household names. She also mentors female directors of start-ups. Valerie has been involved with the Super Power Agency from the outset; she brings a wealth of marketing and PR expertise to the Board, but is also found rolling up her sleeves and volunteering with us in the classroom.

If Valerie is playing Scrabble then her favourite word is syzygy. Otherwise it's fankle, an old Scottish word which she fondly remembers her grandmother using. She often misspells relevant.
Freddie Kennedy
Treasurer
Superpower: education and business

Freddie specialises in international education programmes in the UK and US. With a background as an EFL classroom teacher, she has a wealth of business experience in the international education field, notably recruiting, training and managing international and academic staff for summer school courses. Freddie has a close working relationship with Scottish universities, and contacts with a wide network of primary and secondary school teachers across Scotland; she also has experience in child protection and safeguarding. Her combination of business acumen and educational insight makes a vital contribution to the Super Power Agency board.

Freddie’s favourite word is foible. She finds that business and biscuit always trip her up; her brain wants to make them start with ‘buis’.
Susan Little
Secretary
Superpower: business management

A veterinary surgeon with 30 years’ experience, Susan has worked clinically throughout Edinburgh and south-east Scotland. She established her own multi-site veterinary practice, expanding through acquisitions and mergers, and was selected for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme for entrepreneurs. Susan worked as an external examiner at the University of Edinburgh’s Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, has volunteered at committee level with the British Small Animal Veterinary Association, and served as chair of the charity PetSavers. She brings her wealth of business development and management expertise to the Super Power Agency Board.

Susan’s favourite word is picnic, which was also the name of her first guinea pig whose patchy mix of brown, black and white fur reminded Susan of different snack foods laid out on a rug! Susan can never spell accommodation. She finds that the more ways she tries it, with different combos of the letters ‘c’ and ‘m’, the less any of them look right.
Phoebe Grigor
Trustee
Superpower: visual arts

Photographer and film-maker Phoebe has been involved with the Super Power Agency from the beginning. A classroom volunteer and longstanding Board member, she’s our current house photographer and has taken thousands of luminous photographs of young people, volunteers and teachers at our events and school projects. Phoebe worked for 20 years in the UK and US on documentary and drama productions for the BBC, Channel 4 and PBS; her last production premiered at Sundance and was nominated for a Scottish BAFTA. As a photographer Phoebe specialises in portrait photography, alongside her own practice as an artist.

Phoebe’s favourite word is beasties, which is how she refers to her two weans. She won the 1982 Inverkeithing Primary School Spelling Bee with the word precipice, but is not confident she would win that prize today.
Mark McGauchrane
Trustee
Superpower: creative events

Mark is a partner and director at the creative event and video production agency Vision Events, and has worked with a stellar list of Scottish and international brands and organisations. During his two decades in creative communications, Mark has designed and delivered live, virtual and hybrid projects; his strong mix of commercial and creative abilities is invaluable to our Board. Mark finds parallels between his own creative process – being imaginative, playing around with ideas, then developing personal, memorable work – and the exploratory journey of young people in the Super Power Agency’s programmes.

Mark’s favourite words are soliloquy, club and pensive. He regularly misspells literally, and literally always has to check he’s not written literary instead.
Jane Milne
Trustee
Superpower: librarianship and the public sector

A chartered librarian, Jane has spent many years increasing access to books and libraries, and encouraging a love of reading. Her 20-year career in the public sector has encompassed hands-on librarianship, local government management and national strategic direction; she now works in a senior role at the National Records of Scotland. However, Jane believes that her most important contribution to our Board is her enthusiasm for supporting young people to find their superpower when the world may not see it yet, a passion that was ignited when her son thrived in one of our high school programmes.

Jane’s favourite word is nook. It makes her think of reading nooks, which many public libraries now have, giving readers the opportunity to hide away and devour a good book. She can only spell definitely right if she thinks about the Oasis album Definitely Maybe – she remembers that the 'a' is only a 'maybe' so it must be an 'i'!
Kalubi Mukengela
Trustee
Superpower: performing arts and education

Kalubi is a dancer, musician, choreographer and teacher. She toured internationally with the Sangalayi arts company, performing traditional dances from the Democratic Republic of Congo, then studied contemporary dance and dance education. Alongside her own practice, Kalubi has taught singing and hip hop dance, was the Creative Director at Edinburgh School of Music, and established a coaching agency for young people starting out in the creative industries. We benefit from her passion for helping young people find their own talent and develop their self-confidence, and her expertise in arts education.

Kalubi’s favourite word is dynamic; it particularly appeals because of her belief that the only constant in life is change, and change only comes from movement. She struggles to spell the name John, having to use an exceptional amount of focus every time to make sure that the ‘h’ is in the right place.
Hazel Norris

Superpower: volunteering and publishing

Formerly the Publishing Manager for the reference department at Chambers Harrap Publishers, Hazel spent nearly a decade working in editorial roles. She now volunteers with young readers, and for several years organised a primary school book festival. Hazel’s passion for books and for children’s creativity meant she immediately clicked with the Super Power Agency, and she has volunteered with us in an ever-increasing number of schools. She brings this practical experience of our work to the Board, coupled with her editor’s eye and huge enthusiasm for the transformational power of writing.

Hazel’s favourite word is probably numpty, or perhaps another Scottish word, sitooterie. She’s also fond of discombobulate. She holds a lifetime grudge against liaise, having almost missed out on an early publishing job after leaving out the second ‘i’ when using it in her application.
Ailsa Purdie

Superpower: fundraising

Ailsa is a fundraising professional with experience in the educational and cultural sectors. Currently working with George Heriot’s School in Edinburgh, she has also worked with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and with the V&A Museum in Dundee. Ailsa’s background is in design, and she first volunteered with the Super Power Agency as an illustrator; she later joined the staff team for a spell as Fundraising Manager, and now serves on the Board, where her in-depth knowledge of both the Super Power Agency and the Scottish fundraising landscape is invaluable.

Ailsa’s favourite word is onomatopoeia, which she was taught how to spell by singing the letters to the tune of ‘Old Macdonald Had a Farm’! A word that she often spells wrong, ironically, is fundraising – she always writes fundarising.
Dave Scott
Trustee
Superpower: charity governance and outreach

Dave has more than a decade's experience running Nil by Mouth, one of Scotland's leading equality charities; he has in-depth knowledge of the same challenges and opportunities that the Super Power Agency faces. Dave has worked in communities across Scotland on projects that bring people from different walks of life together, including the ‘Neeps & Tatties’ campaign which has provided free books to more than 1,000 schools. He has worked in partnership with councils, workplaces, schools, NGOs and politicians; he also serves on the boards of a number of national, regional and local charities.

Dave’s favourite word is the Portuguese term saudade, which describes the sense of memory we have for a time or place that may not even have existed; part nostalgia, part escapism and more than a pinch of remembering things being kinder than perhaps they really were. His most frequently misspelled word is… also saudade, of course! How many Irishmen do you know who can speak Portuguese?
Megan Simms
Trustee
Superpower: corporate connections

Megan’s background is in the third sector, where her passion for social justice and raising aspiration for young people drove her work for charities including The Prince’s Trust, CheckIn Works and RockSolid. Having joined Balfour Beatty as Social Impact Advisor, Megan encountered our work through Balfour Beatty’s role in the North Bridge refurbishment community outreach project, and was struck by the Super Power Agency’s energy and passion in supporting young people. She brings a crucial understanding of the intersections between the charitable and corporate worlds to our Board.

Meg’s favourite word is plop! She loves that it’s such a fun word to say. She constantly misspells many other words, but has a particular problem with receipt.