Our Team
Our educators and administrators are the backbone of everything we do at Les Petits Francophones. We couldn't be here without them. The majority of our team is Francophone and most are multi-lingual adding a richly diverse mosaic to the school and its celebrated diversity. Each classroom comprises of at least one anglophone and one francophone educator.
Laetitia Medrano, Executive Director
Laetitia joined our team as Interim Executive Director/Director of Education Development in June 2021 and was promoted to Executive Director in September 2021. Her role primarily focuses on programmatic development and teacher development, as well as supporting school operations. Native from France, Laetitia moved to Canada after her master degree in Social Studies. She lived in Canada in many places, for 12 years, from the East Coast to the West Coast. Teaching was her passion, so she went back to the University of Ottawa to get her Bachelor of Education. Hired by Vancouver School Board, she worked with children from grade 2 to grade 5 and became Head teacher. Seeking new opportunities, she decided to move to California and worked in Oakland for the past 3 years in a Francophone school. Always looking for new challenges, she joined Les Petits Francophones' Board as Secretary in October 2020. Mom of two children, an 8 years old girl and a 13 years old boy, she loves cooking and enjoy outdoors activities! Dedicated to provide the best in education, Laetitia also loves creating inclusive projects and enrichment activities.
Prenties Shade Brown, Assistant Director
Prenties Shade joined LPF in November 2021. Prenti`es means, forever young in French Creole. In 2006, Shade met Bruce D. Perry M.D, PH. D who is a psychiatrist and clinician and researcher in Children’s mental health and neurosciences. After being a part of Bruce volunteer group to help children recover from Trauma from Hurricane Katerina, Shade decided to become a teacher. She has been working in Early Childhood Education for over 15 years now. Her background experiences are working with Children with special needs, Traumatized children, and other at-risk communities throughout California. Not only has she worked with Bruce D. Perry before, she has also worked closely with Deb Curtis who is the co-author of 10 or more books related to working with young children. She has both a bachelors and a master's degree. In the future, she hopes she will get her PH.D. Her mission is to help students build positive connections and feel confident enough to advance their learning. Shade received The Graduate Award for Distinguished Achievement at San Francisco State University in 2020.
Malika Mouzni, Lead Teacher for Canetons
Malika joined the LPF Team in June 2018. Prior to joining our team, Malika worked at Head Start. She grew up in Tizi-Ouzou, Algeria, and moved to the US in 2009. She earned a Medical Assistant Degree from SF City College in 2017. Malika is a senior teacher at LPF and worked with preschoolers and toddlers classrooms. Malika enjoys cooking with her students and singing French comptines.
Mai Yu, Teacher
Madame Mai joined LPF in August 2022. Born in Laos and lived in Thailand for a couple of years, she moved to the US and start working with children. She was an Early Head Start infant assistant teacher and toddler teacher for more than 10 years.
She really enjoys exercising, swimming, cooking , gardening, and spending time with her family.
Laurence Young, Lead Teacher for Canards
Laurence joined LPF in July 2019. She is originally from Brittany, France. She currently lives in Dublin, CA. Laurence worked as a French Teacher in Raleigh, NC and over the last three years has been working diligently towards her AA in Early Childhood Education. She has been living in the US for 18 years. She previously lived in Arizona and North Carolina. She is married and has two daughters. She likes spending time with her husband and daughters, playing board games, going to the movies, and especially exploring local areas. She enjoys reading historic based fiction, as well as non-fictional accounts of France’s history. She spent one year leading our 3-4 years old class and since September 2021, she has been leading the toddlers' classroom.
Emily Millot, Social Emotional Teacher for our toddlers
Emily joined LPF in March of 2022. She has worked for three years as an assistant preschool teacher in Oakland, California. She initially went to school to pursue a career as a social worker but put it on hold to raise a family. She has dedicated the last twenty eight years to raising three sons, all of whom have graduated from the French American International School and are currently embracing adulthood. She recently returned to school to attain her Associate Teacher Certificate and is deeply committed to the education of children for future generations.
Jiji Chibane, Lead Teacher for Poissons
Madame Gigi (or Jiji) joined LPF in August 2022. Born and raised in Algeria, she currently lives in Richmond with her husband and her two boys. Giji received her credential at Merrit College in 2020 and she has been working in preschools settings for the last 5 years.
In her spare time, she likes to spend time with her family and loved ones.
Antoinette Chaplin, Social Emotional Teacher for our preschoolers
Antoinette joined LPF's team in July 2022. Born in San Francisco and brought up to Oakland, she had been working with children for the past eight years. Antoinette's emphasis is to support and develop children's social emotional need, and help them recognize their feeling, and guiding them in finding ways to express themself in a safe manner. Her goal is to be able to help children learn and grow into a wonderful person! She is thankful for working here with your children.
Antoinette has a dog named Jack and when she is not working she enjoys spending time with her family, practicing drawing and doing cosplay.
Darling Hernandez, Lead Teacher for Abeilles
Darling joined LPF in August 2020 as a sub-teacher and joined our team permanently in May 2021. Darling is originally from San Francisco where she gained most of her experience working at a center who served low income families, children with special needs, and provided a Spanish Immersion program. She received her Credential at The City College of San Francisco and have been working in ECE for seven years now. She took a break to explore different school settings through a substitute agency in the Bay Area. On her spare time, Darling enjoy spending time with her loved ones.
Nathalie Steinmetz, Teacher
Nathalie joined our team as a Teacher Aide in September 2021, and is a credentialed ECE teacher since May 2022. Nathalie is a French native, born on the beautiful island of Corsica (France). She is mother of 4 now teenagers and we 2 cats. She really enjoys cooking, baking, spending time at the beach, and gardening. Also, she loves fashion! But more than anything, what makes her happy, is to laugh, talk and spend time with her children and the people she loves.
For most of her adult life, she has been a stay-at-home mom, and now, she is bringing her passion for education on a professional journey.
Sharifeh Asthiani Moghaddam, Teacher
Sharifeh joined LPF's team as a substitute teacher in November and became a Part time teacher in January 2022. She is a graduate in the field of Psychology with more than 17 years of experience working at the level of high school in Iran. She always dreamed about working with children related to her educational background. Therefore, she studied Child development and obtained her master teacher permit. She has more than 6 years of experience in working with children and she found that her dream has come true. Working in Early Childhood Education is a wonderful experience and she learned that teaching and working with children is coming to her naturally. Her only desire is to keep working in the same field.
Nacera Khidas, Teacher
Nacera has recently joined our team in October 2022 as a Preschool Teacher. Nacera graduated her AA in Early Childhood Education 2018 from Merrit College. Nacera is from Algeria, and has worked in preschools settings since 2018. Nacera lives in the Bay Area for more than 9 years now. She enjoys travelling and shopping!
Djidji Mouzni, Aid Teacher
Djidji joined our team at the end of January 2023. She was born in Algeria and came to the United States in October 2022. She has her Bachelor’s degree in German Language and a DEUA in banking and financial Technical in Algeria. She worked as a German teacher at the National Institute of Professional Education and she was also a preschool teacher back home. Djidji loves sports, travel, adventures, and spends time with her family.
Morgane Bhatt, Substitute Teacher
Morgane joined our team in August 2021 as a Teacher Assistant. Morgane graduated in December 2021 and she is now our house substitute teacher. Morgane is a French Native and has worked in a french-speaking pre-school for the last three years. Morgane moved to California six years ago. In France, she worked for the National Center of Scientific Research as a human resource manager. When she moved to California, she became a French tutor and volunteered at French preschool, which led her to decide to pursue a career in Early Childhood Education. She is the proud mother of twins who are also attending Les Petits Francophones. Morgane also has over 30 years of high-level competitive fencing experience, including silver and bronze medals at the USA National Championship (in Women Foil Veteran).