Our residential life team

Marcel Campbell, Director of Residential Life 

Marcel joined UWCSEA East in August 2014. Born and raised in South Africa, she has worked in boarding schools in South Africa, Malaysia, South Korea and now Singapore for more than 20 years. After gaining an MA degree in Linguistics, she turned to teaching, and has loved teaching English and English Literature ever since. She has a real passion for boarding, and can’t imagine living anywhere other than in an international boarding house community.

She lives with her husband, James, and her daughters, Zola, Willa and Etta, in Tampines House on the 4th floor alongside the boisterous and energetic grade 8 and 9 students. After being a houseparent of Cempaka Family in the Tampines House community for four years, she took on the role of Director of Residential Life, leading and supporting all members of the community to live by the UWC values in our Boarding Manifesto.

Nicholas Heymans, Deputy Director of Residential Life 

Originally from the coastal town of Knysna, South Africa, Nicholas brings 13 years of experience in boarding schools across South Africa, Russia, Germany, and most recently, China. Holding a Bachelor’s in Education, he is currently pursuing a Master’s in Education, driven by a passion for holistic learning environments—from the classroom to the sports field.

Nicholas thrives in the dynamic world of boarding, where no two days are alike. He finds immense reward in guiding students to discover and achieve their potential. Deeply committed to residential life, he believes it fosters confident, compassionate, and globally-minded individuals.

He lives with his wife, Lindsey, a dedicated counsellor with experience as a whole-school and college counsellor, currently pursuing her Master’s in Clinical Psychology.

Regina Sutomo, Cempaka Family Houseparent

Regina is from Sydney, Australia, where she has lived all her life. She has been working in Boarding for the past nine years, after completing her MA in Teaching (English). This is her third year at UWCSEA and she's loving it. Her favourite parts about Boarding are the fun activities, awesome excursions and warmth from pastoral care. Regina loves the outdoors; nature, hiking, and photography, and also loves the indoors; knitting, cooking and coffee. She lives with her husband and little baby.

Felicia Yeo, Cempaka Family Boarding Services Executive

Felicia was born in Kuching (also known as Cat City), in East Malaysia. She moved to Singapore more than a decade ago and started her working life since then. Prior to coming to UWCSEA, she worked in Banking, Design Engineering, IT, and Healthcare Industry. In her free time, Felicia enjoys cooking, baking, reading, watching movies, dramas, gardening, making DIY jewellery and traveling. Occasionally she does yoga or hiking. 

Gayane Lalayan, Keranji Family Houseparent

Gaya is originally from Armenia; an ancient and beautiful country in the Caucasus. She spent her childhood years in amazing Vietnam where she fell in love with eastern culture and people. She has been teaching Spanish ab initio for the last 9 years in UWC Dilijan, as well as enjoying her experience of being a Houseparent in the same college prior to coming to UWCSEA. Her two boys are already over 18; her eldest son is in his two-year military service, and her youngest son will join him soon. 

Gaya enjoys having short walks with the boarders before curfews, having discussions about languages, philosophy and the meaning of life. She loves traveling, dancing and spending quality time with boarders. 

Helena Asri, Keranji Family Senior Boarding Services Executive

Helena had been with Tampines House since before it opened its doors to the boarders in May 2011. She marvelled at how much the house has grown from a quiet 50 boarders to the happy, loud, marvellous house that it is now! Also happy to have a chat and share stories with the boarders.

James Shillabeer, Rambutan Family Houseparent

James joined UWCSEA-East in August 2014 with his wife Marcel. He was born in the UK but has lived and worked in schools and universities in the US, Chile, South Korea and now Singapore. He is a philosophy, politics and ToK teacher, and enjoys discussions and debates. He also enjoys reading, writing, travel and food and hopes to share these interests with the students. 

Yanin Wickrematunge, Rambutan Family Boarding Services Executive

Yanin is from the beautiful island of Sri Lanka, but has lived in Singapore for the past 14 years. She does not live at Tampines House like the Houseparents, but like the rest of the BSEs, you will see her during the day, on weekdays. She helps students with their student pass, school trip visas, medical needs, manage their finances and anything they need help with and loves being a part of this vibrant community! In her free time, she loves travelling & exploring the world, going on walks, good food, great music and reading.  

Helena Budiarto, Tembusu Family Houseparent

Helena joined UWCSEA East in 2022. She is from Sydney Australia and has worked in schools teaching English and EAL in both Australia and Hong Kong to all ages before coming to Singapore. Helena has worked with international students for over 20 years and has found working in boarding and student wellbeing to be her real joy alongside baking and travelling.  

Christiaan Venter, Tembusu Family Houseparent

Chris joined UWCSEA East as a houseparent in 2015. He grew up in South Africa and moved to Malaysia in 2011 where he worked at a boarding school near Kuala Lumpur. He has his own label maker and he enjoys putting things in alphabetical order. He also enjoys making tea for lonely students. Occasionally he teaches some Science to anyone who is interested enough to listen to him. He likes talking about classical music, geography, languages, coffee, astrophysics, and everything that's wrong with the world at the moment.

Ravin Wimalagunawardhana, Tembusu Family Boarding Services Executive

Ravin has experienced boarding from both perspectives. As a resident of NUS Eusoff Hall, Ravin enjoyed boarding activities so much that he was known as a full-time resident and a part time student. After eventually graduating, Ravin managed the Boarding & Home-Stay Programme of a private school for 4½ years before trying his hand at Operations Management in a Systems Integration Company. Since he came back to the Education Industry in 2012, Ravin serves as one of the Boarding Student Services Executives who manage the administration matters of Tampines House. Ravin is originally from the small island of Sri Lanka and has been staying in the slightly smaller island of Singapore since he came over to study in 2000. Ravin enjoys reading, watching TV and movies and bowling.

Pat Desbarats, Deputy Houseparent

Patrick Desbarats joined the UWCSEA East Campus from Doha Qatar where he worked for seven years as the Head of Counselling and College Placement at the American School of Doha. In this position, he created and implemented a high school counselling curriculum that focused on student wellness, career exploration, and the college admissions process. Before moving overseas, Patrick was a College Counsellor for eight years at a public school north of Toronto, Canada.  He began his career in education as a Residence Manager, overseeing the care of over 800 first year university students. He has coached volleyball, tennis, and badminton as well as led school trips to France and Ethiopia.  Patrick is an avid swimmer, cyclist and long distance runner.