Administration

Emily joined L’Ecole Française du Maine in 2018 to assist the Office Manager part-time and immediately demonstrated a capacity for running an efficient school office. She took on the role of Office Manager soon afterward, and starting in 2020; she will be increasing her responsibilities as Childcare Director and Office Manager. In this role, Emily takes charge of the day-to-day operations, and she is the lead person for all protocols, school records, and school licensing compliance. Her college internships in office management roles at various healthcare and childcare facilities in NYC helped her find employment as Office Manager at local tutoring center Affect Academics, where she continues to gain integral communication and business management skills. Emily is the point person for daily communication; she answers the phone and emails- relaying information between the teachers and families and making connections. She assists with scheduling conflicts, organizing special events & admission inquiries, and she fulfills the vital role of providing a band-aid and a smile when a child gets a boo-boo! It takes an exceptional person to run a school office, and Emily is just that kind of person. The School is excited to see Emily’s role in the school continue to grow: in addition to running the school office, Emily continues to teach Yoga at the school, her passion, and perhaps her secret to running the office so smoothly!

Elizabeth grew up in Maine and earned her Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from the University of Maine at Farmington, with a concentration in Visual and Performing Arts. In college, Beth studied modern dance and choreography and was a member of the modern dance company, The UMF Dancers, for four years. She also attended University College Galway, Ireland as an exchange student, where she reconnected with her family there and met her husband, Willy, a graduate student at the time. She began her career teaching grades 5,6, and 7 in Maine public schools, where she volunteered to teach French after school, as there was no foreign language opportunity offered for the students. After five years, Beth and her husband, Willy, decided to start a family of their own. She left the self-contained classroom to teach privately in order to meet both her professional goals and childcare needs. In their bilingual household, the ability for their own children to speak both French and English came naturally, and this sparked the beginning of a French-immersion program for Maine children. Inspired by the world-renowned Early Childhood program of Les ecoles maternelles in France, the wheels were set in motion for an adventure that would go on to become L’Ecole Française du Maine. With two small children and one on the way, Beth taught by day and studied evenings and weekends to earn her Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education/Child Development through the University of Phoenix. This experience increased her love of early education and fueled her desire to offer Maine children a valuable foundation for learning, beginning at an early age. She has worked in education for 25 years filling many different positions. During her first year as a classroom teacher, Elizabeth received a national teaching award, being named as “One of the Nation’s 100 Best First-Year Teachers.” She was Maine’s only recipient. In 2009, she was awarded the prestigious Chevalier des Palmes Académiques, a Knighthood Order of Chivalry of France presented to academics and educators. The order was originally created by Napoleon. Beth is fluent in French and has raised her children to be bilingual. When not at school, she enjoys reading (with a cat on her lap and dog at her feet), gardening, knitting, boating, taking walks in the woods and on the beach and spending time with her family.

Elise graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a Bachelors Degree in Creative Writing, English and French Literature, and Violin Performance. Sarah Lawrence’s renowned writing program gave our bookshelves the works of Ann Patchett and Alice Walker. It allowed Elise to study the craft of writing with many authors, including her advisors, Victoria Redel and Mary La Chapelle. Elise is completely bilingual and holds the highest French DELF certification Level: C2. She spent her junior year of college in Paris where she studied violin at the conservatory- L’Ecole Normale de Musique in their professional division and took classes in French Literature through Sarah Lawrence College with former professors of La Sorbonne. She is currently writing a children’s novel and studying fiction writing at Edinburgh University in Scotland.