About Us
Faculty and Staff
Administration
Jennifer Annable
Marie-Alice Chapeau
Aurélie Declerck
Zoé Zitzka
Carlos Berrones
Head of School
Jennifer Annable
Jennifer joined NSFS as Head of School in 2020. She has been a school principal and executive director in Seattle for more than 30 years, and retired in July 2020 after 10 years as executive director of the Academy for Precision Learning (APL). Prior to joining APL, Jennifer spent 25 years at the University of Washington’s Experimental Education Unit (EEU) where she was principal and later director; the EEU is a birth-to-age-six center with a threefold mission of research, training and service. Jennifer was the 2010 recipient of the Division of Early Childhood Rose C. Engel Award for Excellence in Professional Practice, a national award recognizing the highest standards of practice in the education field. She holds a master’s degree in education as well as a Principal’s Certificate from the University of Washington, and she received her bachelor’s degree from Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Jennifer is certified in Early Childhood Special Education, K-12 Special Education, and K-8 Elementary Education.
Operations Manager
Marie-Alice Chapeau
Originally from Bordeaux on the Atlantic coast of France, Marie-Alice received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Orléans and worked for different companies including L’Oréal (leader in cosmetics), Sihl (Inkjet paper) and Novamex (leader of eco-friendly cleaning products). She moved to Seattle in 2013 with her husband, and after teaching science at NSFS in its inaugural year, she worked for several years at FISW in Bellevue and at the Alliance Française, before returning to NSFS. Marie-Alice enjoys living in the Pacific Northwest and loves traveling, discovering new places, spending time with family, and learning about new cultures. She is very proud to be a member of the NSFS community!
Admissions - Marketing - Communication
Aurélie Declerck
Aurélie’s passion for nurturing children’s curiosity and creativity led her to education. Originally from the north of France, Aurélie received her master’s degree from the IESEG School of Management in Lille. Previously, she worked as an event organizer for the French-American Chamber of Commerce here in Seattle and for a medical conference organization in Toulouse. Before coming to Seattle in 2008, she spent a year living in Lima, Peru and several months in New Zealand. In her spare time, Aurélie likes hiking, paddle boarding and exploring with her husband and two kids. She loves yoga and learning new things. She is engaged in her community and passionate about environmental protection.
Office Assistant - GLOBE Coordinator
Zoé Zitzka
Zoé, who was born and raised here in Washington, joined NSFS in 2019 to lead the extended care program. Her role has grown to include running camps during school breaks as well, and in 2020, she joined our administrative team in the role of office assistant. Zoé is working on her French and picks up more everyday! Outside of school, she loves traveling and has visited France, Canada, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Her goal is to visit every country. She also enjoys hiking, dancing, and learning new things.
Bus Driver - IT Support
Carlos Berrones
Carlos came to us with over 18 years experience driving in heavily trafficked urban areas. He was born and raised in the Chicagoland area. He graduated from High School in 2004 and attended Hyles-Anderson College for secondary education. Carlos worked his way up to GM at Pilot Travel Centers. Following an injury which affected his walking Carlos started driving for Uber and Lyft in Chicago in 2014. He moved with his wife and daughter to Bellevue in the summer of 2018. He has continued driving in the Seattle area for Uber and Lyft.
Teachers
Céline Bourdales
Agnès Ravion Daout
Anna Basler
Asmaa Bouterfas
Audrey Petitpierre
Clarisse Devouton
Dani Preston
Faten Mahjoubi
Jill Abruzzio
Julie Massoulié
Karen DeSantiago
Kevilin dos Reis Santos
Melanie De Torrente
Michaela Hodgson
Nathalie Tomaszewski
Ryan Martinez
Director of Curriculum - French Teacher 4th Grade
Céline Bourdales
Céline loves teaching and holds a certification in education through the Mission Laïque Française (MLF). She was born and raised in Arcachon, in the southwest of France, and received a bachelor’s degree from Cefire, a business school in Bordeaux, before working as a financial analyst in France. She then moved to Montreal and finally Seattle, where she started an art studio, taught sewing classes for students from toddlers to adults, and also taught French at the Alliance Française de Seattle. Céline joined NSFS in 2016 and became the director of the curriculum in 2019, as well as continuing to teach in the classroom.
French Teacher Preschool / Petite Section
Agnès Ravion Daout
Agnès was born and raised in Tours, France. In high school, she majored in language arts and learned English, German and Arabic. After graduating law school, she moved to Texas with her husband. She then lived in England, Mexico and now Seattle. Agnes discovered her love for teaching and sharing her mother tongue and culture when she became French teacher in a Montessori school. She has been working as a substitute teacher, camp instructor (virtual and in-person) and instructor for the Middle School program at NSFS since 2020. She is a French tutor and she organizes French book clubs for adults and children in the Seattle area. One of her favorite quotes is from the American lawyer and author Amy Chua: “Speaking with a foreign accent is a sign of bravery”. Agnès has 2 children. She loves reading, traveling, hiking, music and ballet.
English teacher Kindergarten and 3rd grade
Anna Basler
Anna grew up in Lexington, Kentucky and spent the majority of her career in St. Louis, where she taught kindergarten and preschool, and worked as a supervisor in Saint Louis University’s Early Childhood Education Department. She has a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education and a master’s degree in Elementary Administration. Anna recently moved to Seattle from Vevey, Switzerland where she spent the past four year with her husband and two boys, teaching ESL to French-speaking students in a fast-growing language school and serving on the PTA of a French-English international school. Anna’s passion for languages includes a minor in Spanish and ongoing study of French. She enjoys spending time outdoors with her family including hiking, skiing and being on the water.
French Teacher Pre-K / Moyenne Section
Asmaa Bouterfas
Asmaa was born and raised in Algeria. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in political journalism and communication. She lived in Strasbourg, France for several years where she worked at an insurance company, and she has taught preschool since moving to Seattle with her family in 2018. Asmaa is in the process of getting the DAEFLE, a diploma in teaching French as a foreign language. In her spare time, she likes to travel and explore new destinations, practice yoga, and cook.
French Teacher 1st Grade
Audrey Petitpierre
Audrey was born in Lyon and raised near Valence, in the southeast of France. She obtained the CRPE, a French degree in elementary education, and worked for 12 years in elementary and early childhood education in France. For 2 years before moving to Seattle, Audrey was an elementary school principal in the Paris area. She moved to Seattle with her family in 2019 and joined NSFS in September 2020. When she’s not at school, she loves playing board games, outdoor activities and cooking.
French Teacher Kindergarten / Grande Section
Clarisse Devouton
Clarisse grew up in Champagne, France and was a physical therapist for 10 years before relocating to Prague and then to the Seattle area with her husband and four children in 2013. In Seattle, Clarisse found a new passion for education and helping children acquire a foundation in French. She started her teaching career as a preschool teacher in a French immersion school and now holds her French education degree and a Child Development Associate (CDA) credential. Clarisse is outdoorsy and loves taking advantage of all the activities the region has to offer, such as hiking, backpacking, skiing and paddle boarding.
Art teacher - Associate Teacher Pre-k / moyenne section
Dani Preston
Dani is a youth educator, artist and gardener originally from California. She has a bachelor’s degree in French from UC Davis. She has lived in Paris and in Lyon, France, where she made art and taught elementary and middle school English, and also lived in Hawaii for two years where she became an art instructor and master gardener while also displaying her collages and playing original music in fine art galleries. She moved to Seattle in 2021 to become an elementary art teacher and preschool assistant at NSFS, where her goal is to inspire students to explore creative personal expression through artistic play and observation.
French Teacher 3rd grade
Faten Mahjoubi
Born and raised in a polyglot household in Tunisia, Fatem earned a bachelor’s degree in French literature and language. She has 7 years of experience teaching in a bilingual environment, as a French teacher first in a middle and high school in Tunisia and then, in an international middle and elementary school in Dubai. Fatem moved to Seattle in 2015 and while working for another French-American school, she completed her teaching certificate of world language in Washington State. She loves traveling, learning about new cultures, spending time with her family and cooking.
English teacher 1st grade & 4th grade
Jill Abruzzio
Jill has been working within education and in a bilingual French-English environment since 2009. Originally interested in the culinary arts, she worked as an intern at Le Cordon Bleu Paris in 2010. While working toward her master’s in education with a specialization in second language acquisition, Jill completed a research project in Nice in 2013 and worked at the University of Iowa as a French teacher’s assistant. In 2015, Jill started the first ELL program in an elementary school in Iowa that receives many francophone families from west and central Africa. Jill is passionate about inclusive education models and loves working with students. She is also a huge fan of cycling, photography, arts and crafting in her free time. She volunteers for the Pedaling Relief Project.
French Teacher 2nd Grade
Julie Massoulié
Julie was born in Paris but has lived all around the world. At the age of five, she moved to Canada and then to India, where she grew up in a bilingual French-English environment. Ultimately Julie settled in Belgium, where she obtained her degree in elementary education. After teaching in Belgium, she moved to Spain to work at the Lycée Français d’Alicante, and then relocated to Chile to be a French elementary teacher in a bilingual school and discover another new region. Julie has lived in Seattle and taught at NSFS since 2019.
Teacher's assistant preschool / petite section
Karen DeSantiago
Karen was born and raised in Washington. She graduated from Whatcom Community College in Bellingham and holds an associate in Arts and Science degree. Karen has been an early childhood teacher’s assistant since 2018. She truly enjoys teaching young students, watching them grow and reach their highest potential. During her free time, Karen likes spending time with her family, hiking with her husband and their dog and going to the beach.
English teacher 2nd grade & 5th grade
Kevilin dos Reis Santos
Kevilin is a creative soul who was born in Salvador, Bahia in Brazil. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Language Arts with a teaching certificate from the Federal University of Bahia (Brazil) and she is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Education with a concentration in English Language Learning at Northwest University.Kevilin is passionate about the language learning process, and before coming to the U.S. in 2018, she taught in a bilingual school in Brazil. She grew up near the beach and enjoyed the year-round summer weather, but she also loves traveling and exploring. Her favorite things are taking cool pictures and scrapbooking, sunsets, bookstores, white chocolate mochas, and laughing with her students.
French Teacher 5th Grade
Melanie De Torrente
Mélanie grew up between the mountains and the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. She received a Bachelor of Arts in social work from the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland and a Master of Arts in special education from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. Mélanie has worked as a social worker with adults living with blindness and intellectual disabilities, with children and teenagers facing behavioral and academic challenges, and also as a teacher with students from preK to 8th grade. Before moving to Seattle with her family in 2019, Mélanie lived in New York and taught bilingual French-English preschool. In her spare time, Mélanie loves discovering Seattle with her daughter, traveling and skiing.
Associate Teacher Kindergarten / Grande Section
Michaela Hodgson
A graduate of Seattle University, Michaela received her bachelor’s degree with a double major in French and international studies. Born in South Dakota but raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, Michaela attended French immersion school starting in kindergarten and continued her French language studies through high school. She had the opportunity to spend four months living with a host family in Grenoble, France. Michaela has been working for NSFS as teacher’s assistant since 2019. In her free time, Michaela enjoys reading and spending time visiting Seattle’s waterfront parks.
GLOBE Instructor
Nathalie Tomaszewski
Nathalie was born and raised in the suburbs of Paris in a very diverse environment and moved to Seattle in 1996. She fell in love of the Pacific Northwest and has taken immense pleasure in discovering the region over the years with her son. The beautiful environment reminds her of the French Alps where she had spent all her vacations growing up. After completing her master’s degree in French Studies at the UW, Nathalie taught French to a wide range of students and schools. Her teaching always includes the discovery and respect of all Francophone cultures, accents and dialects. Nathalie is passionate about arts, theater and cinema, and loves biking, hiking, skiing and most of everything, camping. She also loves to create events for her friends and family.
Teacher's assistant
Ryan Martinez
Ryan was born in California then lived in New Mexico and Idaho before moving to Seattle in 2017. After 7 years working as a sales manager and traveling around the world for his job, he realized he loved working with children and decided to change his career path. Ryan joined NSFS in 2021 and loves sharing his passion for sports, especially soccer and basketball, with the students. In his free time, he enjoys fishing, camping, listening to music and going to soccer games with his wife Julie, who is a teacher at NSFS.