Vladimir Kuskovski – Building a Career Across Borders in Education
Vladimir Kuskovski grew up in Mogilev, Belarus, in a house where English was spoken alongside Russian and Belarusian. His mother taught English at the university level, and she had him reading in English by age seven. Summers were spent along the Dnieper River with his parents, and later on the water as a rower, a sport that eventually put him on the USSR Olympic team in 1984.
He finished School No. 23 at age 16 and went on to Minsk Linguistics University to study English and German. He completed his master's degree there, with part of the coursework done at the University of Manchester in the UK in 1991.
From linguistics to the classroom
Kuskovski's path into education did not start in a head of school's office. It started in a classroom in South St. Paul, Minnesota, where he taught Russian and German and worked as an IB coordinator. It was a long way from Mogilev, but the move gave him a close look at how American public education worked, from the inside of a single building rather than from a policy paper.
That classroom experience turned into something bigger in 2000, when he earned a Specialist in Education degree and a K-12 administrative license from St. Mary's University in Minneapolis. The same year, he was named Teacher of the Year and received the Silver Apple award in Minnesota. He moved from teaching into the principal's office at New Spirit Middle School in St. Paul, the first step in a career that would eventually take him through schools on four continents.
A career that crossed borders
Over the following two decades, Kuskovski led schools in Germany, Switzerland, India, the United States, and Cyprus. He was Head of School at LAS in Switzerland, then moved to the International School Hamburg, then to the Oberoi International School in Mumbai, back to Switzerland at the International School of Basel, and later to EF Academy New York. Having completed his time at EF Academy, he now serves as Head of Trinity Private School in Cyprus.
Each move meant learning a new system, a new staff, and often a new language of instruction. He completed his Ph.D. at Capella University in 2008 and a fellowship at the Klingenstein Center at Teachers College, Columbia University, in 2011, credentials he picked up while still working full time in schools rather than stepping away to earn them. He has also taught part time, as an adjunct professor at Endicott College and Grand Canyon University, and as a visiting professor in the graduate program at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Building something new in Mumbai
Not every chapter of Kuskovski's career involved running an existing school. In India, he was brought on board to help start Stellar World School, a group of three IB schools in Mumbai, where he serves as Consulting Group Director, directing the group on a consulting basis for the owner. All three schools are now in their fifth year of operation and are very successful. Building a school network from the ground up is a different exercise than taking over a headship. It meant setting up governance, hiring systems, and academic programs before a single student walked through the door, work that drew directly on everything he had already learned leading established institutions.
A seat at the table
Kuskovski has spent much of his career serving on the boards that shape international education itself, not just the schools inside it. He served two terms, the maximum allowed, on the board of the Council of International Schools. While living in Germany, he sat on the board of the Association of German International Schools. Since 2014, he has served on the board of the Academy for International School Heads, and since 2015 on the board of Baku Oxford School.
In 2024, the Association for the Advancement of International Education inducted him into its Hall of Fame, and in 2021 he was named a Distinguished Apple Educator. He has also taken part in charity efforts connected to Feed the Starving Children, Rising Westchester, and the Terry Fox Run for cancer research.
Still running
Kuskovski has completed 11 marathons across six countries, a pursuit that grew out of the same instinct that once put him on a rowing team: steady, repeatable effort over a long distance. He reads the New York Times daily and follows Russian-language independent press alongside professional literature on leadership and education. Decades after leaving the water of the Dnieper behind, the habits built there – patience, perseverance, and a willingness to put in the miles, still show up in how he runs a school.
