Contacts

Mohamed Bouabdallah

Judith Roze

Judith Roze joined the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in September 2021 as Deputy Cultural Counselor and Deputy Director of Villa Albertine.

A graduate of the École normale supérieure, Judith holds an MA in Classics from the Sorbonne. After studying and working in the UK for 3 years, she worked in Paris as a journalist and literary translator, publishing various works of fiction by American, Canadian, and British writers in French translation.

In 2010, she joined the Institut français, the French cultural relations agency, as Deputy Director and then Director of its French Language, Books and Ideas Department. In this position, she worked closely with the French cultural network around the world to foster intercultural exchange through intellectual debate, French-teaching activities, translation programs, and worldwide events like the Night of Ideas.

She now assists the Director in the management of Villa Albertine.

Mélanie Vandenbroucke

Aurore Rinchen

Tristan Cazes

Nicolas Le Van Xieu

Nicole Laguerre

Bertrand Chaminaud

Erin Glaser

Véronique Yatera Sylla

Daniel Fiscus

Blaise Tega

Cyprien Meslay

Lawrence Thangarajah

Meryem Kettani

Anne Bourgois

Cannon Williams

Anne-Lise Séhi

Kimberly Corliss

Kimberly Corliss, a native New Yorker, studied French language and literature at Barnard College of Columbia University and has since had the privilege of wearing many hats at the Cultural Services over the years, from Albertine bookseller to Director of Communications, her current role. In that position, Kim strives to introduce Villa Albertine to new audiences and help build a community of arts and ideas between the US and France while highlighting the multiculturalism of France today. As reported by The Art Newspaper, “we’re not here to wave the French flag” (Gaëtan Bruel).

Outside her interest in French and Francophone cultures, Kim writes; sings with a classical a capella group (the New Amsterdam Singers); and is on a perpetual search for her next afternoon goûter.

Kinshasa Peterson

Dalia Rubinstein

Shubhangi Shukla

Xavier Moquet

Fabrice Jaumont

Yoël Kidane

Yann Gaboriau

Georgina Morat

Olivier Quenis

Gwennaël Petillat

Claire Marteau

Anne Deblaciat

Jean-Christophe Dissart

Caroline Hourdry

Benoît Labat

David Do Paço

Elisa Alvarez

Laurence Menager

Ines Arcia

Mickael Raggi

Fatima Droin

Jean-Christophe Dissart

Kathryn Manz

Aude Oubelkhir

Emma Irwin

Caroline Lowe

Malika El Garh

Xin Yan

Marie Bulete

Hamza Djimli

With nearly 15 years of experience in the field of educational and linguistic cooperation, Hamza Djimli graduated with a master’s degree in Language Sciences and Cooperation, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Italian Language and Literature, in 2009 from the University of Provence and University of Siena, Tuscany.

His career as a French teacher has taken him to various countries to teach diverse audiences from a hospitality school in Italy and military bases in Georgia and Armenia to bilingual high schools in Hungary, at the Alliance Française of Jersey, and at the International School of Denver, Colorado. He also served for two years as the Head of the French and Arabic language department at the French Institute of Jordan in Amman.

In 2018, Hamza returned to France to join France Education International, the operator of the French Ministry of National Education in charge of international cooperation in education. As part of a team of program managers, he developed expertise in evaluation engineering for the production and distribution of French diplomas and tests in 179 countries. During this time, he taught at the University of Sorbonne and CELSA while contributing to textbook editing projects as an author for Didier Publishing House.

His interest in Anglo-Saxon cultures has grown through a series of professional experiences in foreign language institutions in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Cambridge, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu, and Toronto.

Since September 2021, he has been serving as the National Coordinator of the Alliance Française network in the United States at the Embassy of France in Washington.

Vincent Mano

Clara Schoch

Valentine Richet

Laure Poupard

Vincent Florant

Nathalie Charles

Nathalie Charles serves as Program Officer for the Embassy of France’s Film, TV and New Media Department in the United States, as well as for Villa Albertine. She organizes Films on the Green, a free outdoor French film festival produced each year to bring classic and contemporary French movies to New York City parks. She is the founder of CinéSchool, a new program geared towards introducing French cinema and animation to children in the United States. In her previous role, she was lead coordinator for Mediamerica, a French and American professional network and online platform focusing on film and TV industry, VOD and new media. An avid reader and film buff, Nathalie is also engaged in several educational and non-profit organizations. She graduated from University of Montpellier in Arts Management and Programming.

Sandrine Neveux

Sandrine Neveux has worked in the film industry for 20 years in Paris, London and San Francisco, before joining Villa Albertine in NYC. She was involved with key European sales agents and distributors, including the British Film Institute (BFI), working on independent and classic films and creating an arthouse video-on-demand streaming service in the UK, Curzon Home Cinema. In 2017, she founded her own company in San Francisco, Novel Ciné, and organized screening events bringing a rising generation of French directors to the Bay Area, and collaborating with Unifrance and sffilm to introduce them to a younger audience. She is now coordinating the new French cinema program on campus, Albertine Cinémathèque, in collaboration with FACE Foundation, overseeing the festival grants and curating its virtual Film Club including Q&As with French filmmakers. She is working with universities/colleges on the Young French Cinema program, in collaboration with Unifrance, and alongside programmers in US movie theaters on presenting French directors and putting together film series and retrospectives highlighting the best of French cinema. She is coordinating the French filmmakers’ residencies all over the US.

Camille Jeanjean

Olivia Bourrat

Diane Josse

Diane Josse is the Cultural Attaché, Head of the Visual and Performing Arts Department at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York, now known as Villa Albertine. Diane studied contemporary art and photography in France and Germany and was also involved for several years in a theatre company that performed at the Avignon festival in 1987.

She furthered her professional expertise through her long-term involvement in arts and culture in the context of soft power politics.

She’s been working extensively abroad for almost 25 years in the field of cultural bilateral cooperation, initiating and maintaining long-term partnerships with key organizations to anchor and develop artistic, cultural and university projects in Germany,Thailand, Japan, Korea, India, and the US.

Through her vast experience, she possesses a broad understanding of contemporary cultural matters, ranging from performing arts to visual arts, with a particular, but not exclusive, expertise on Asian cultural production.

Olivier Le Falher

Olivier Le Falher began his professional career with a PhD on the work of visual artists in residence (2010) followed by a post-doctorate degree in documentary photography and landscape. Additionally, he was involved in various missions in the visual arts field, especially coordinating the Marseille Expos network and the festival “Printemps de l’art Contemporain” from 2014 to 2019. In 2021, he was in charge of “Traversées,” a fund for visual artists organized by CIPAC and financed by the Ministry of Culture.

Louise Dodet

Louise Dodet is the program officer of the Performing Arts department at Villa Albertine headquarters in New York. She has worked at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York since 2019.

In France and then in New York, where she has lived for 10 years, Louise worked in the fields of both dance and theater, supporting companies with production and touring.

She has her degree in Arts from the University of Nice, where she specialized in dance.

Dylan Hadida

Dylan Hadida has been in the music industry for several years. A French-American from Texas, he studied jazz guitar at the University of North Texas for four years. He then worked as a musical adaptor for the Broadway MAD production company based in Paris. He adapted the show Madiba the musical, a musical about the life of Nelson Mandela, from French to English for an Australian and New Zealand tour in 2018-2019. He also worked on Anne Frank, a musical for off-Broadway dates in New York in September 2019 and upcoming in March 2022. He recently finished his Master’s degree in International Affairs at Sciences Po Toulouse.

He is currently in charge of music at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, where he accompanies the music residents of the Villa Albertine in their projects. He also supervises the Jazz & New Music program in collaboration with FACE Foundation, which, in recent years, has supported more than 40 Franco-American touring and creative projects.

Clara Schoch

Zoe Appy

David Ruffel

David Ruffel has been working in the fields of culture, books, and education for 20 years. He has taught at both secondary schools and universities, and co-edits a literature collection (the Chaoïd Collection) published by Verdier in France. Before becoming Book Attaché in Cairo for the French Embassy in Egypt, he created a contemporary art festival in Casablanca.

Notably, in the early 2000s, he co-directed a digital magazine devoted to thought and creation (Chaoïd Magazine); in 2020, the Chaoïd Collection won the Prix Inter in 2020 for Anne Pauly’s novel, Avant que j’oublie. He has led numerous programs between France and the Arab world, including exhibitions devoted to Lebanese comics, Arabic typography, and contemporary Egyptian graphic design, and has contributed to the translation into Arabic of authors like Bruno Latour, Maylis de Kerangal, and Alain Mabanckou. David Ruffel is currently Director of Villa Albertine in Atlanta and the Cultural Attaché in Atlanta. He is responsible for cultural, educational, and academic cooperation in the states of Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina. He is an associate professor of literature and a graduate of the University of Montpellier III.

Lillianne Daniels

Meryem Sekkate

Frederique Horn

Marceau Crespo de Nogueira

Axelle Moleur

A graduate of Sciences-Po Paris with a master’s degree in Hispanic-American literature, Axelle Moleur joined the Centre Georges Pompidou in 2005 as an assistant in the Temporary Exhibitions Production Department. From 2009 to 2012, she joined Agence France-muséums in Paris to work on the Franco-Emirati project of the Louvre Abu Dhabi as Administrative and Budget Manager.

From 2012 to 2017, she held the position of Financial and Legal Director at the Cinémathèque française, then from 2017 to 2021, she contributed to the definition and implementation of the institution’s strategy as Deputy Director General of the Centre national de la danse in Paris.

She joined the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in Chicago as Cultural Attaché on September 1, 2021, and now serves as Director of Villa Albertine Chicago.

Caroline Hourdry

Laurence Geannopulos

Bettina Gardelles

Bettina Gardelles has been working for more than 10 years in the fields of culture and innovation in various  French and foreign institutions: at the Terra Foundation for the American Arts, at the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie, as well as at a publishing house in Vietnam.

She creates projects by creating transversal synergies: she has notably launched the Heritage Incubator for the Centre of National Monuments, a plan which incorporates start-ups into the world of historical monuments, the aim being to bring concrete and innovative solutions for showcasing cultural heritage, to the both the staff and visitors of the monuments. She was also responsible for the organization of a collaborative and creative event, which brought together more than one hundred participants and a dozen partners for three days at the Tau Palace in Reims, for the purpose of better involving visitors in the creation of innovative mediation tools for the monument’s visitor route.

She also regularly  gives lectures at French schools and universities (CELSA, Sorbonne, Universities of Bordeaux and Avignon, ESSEC, etc.) on innovation, entrepreneurship and heritage.

Bettina has both a double qualification in art history and museology from the Ecole du Louvre, as well as a degree in digital humanities from the Sorbonne.

Based in Houston, Bettina  now works as a cooperation and cultural action attaché and deputy director of Villa Albertine in Texas. Bettina and her team look forward to welcoming and working with residents in the vast and unique environment of Texas.

Amandine Castillo

Amandine Castillo has been a coordinator in the cultural department of the Embassy of France in Houston since 2017. She assists the Director of Villa Albertine in Houston in her various tasks of promoting, monitoring, and supporting Franco-American cultural, educational, and academic cooperation projects in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.

She is in charge of the administrative follow-up of the various projects, communication, and has been coordinating the French Cultures Festival from 2017 to 2021. She was also involved in the organization of the Night of Ideas event in Houston in 2019 (ecology) and in 2021 (migration and space).

She has known Texas for more than 15 years, particularly Houston, where she moved in 2016, and the Rio Grande Valley, where she studied and carried out various studies on the local economy and life with the McAllen Chamber of Commerce. She earned a Master’s degree in Intercultural Management and Negotiation from the University of Bordeaux, and has worked on the coordination of international programs within French higher education institutions for 7 years.

She contributed to the establishment of Villa Albertine in Texas, and, alongside the Director of Villa Albertine in Houston, will welcome and support its new residents.

Juliette Richoux

Océane Arnaud

Benoît Labat

Christin Neary

Lise de Sablet

Tristan Celet

Nicolas Doyard

Kimberley Gaultier

Kimberley Gaultier has worked as a communications and cultural projects manager for the Director of Villa Albertine in Miami since 2003.

Over the years, Kimberley has led projects like the conference on Jean Rouch at the University of Miami in 2005, the “Tour de France/Florida” contemporary art exhibition at the Frost Art Museum in 2011, the Films the on the Beach festival from 2014 to 2019, the “Abecadarium” by French designer Alexandra Midal at the Pérez Art Museum Miami in 2016, and the Tout-Monde Festival from 2018 to 2020.

Practically a native of Miami, her personal relationship to the city began when her parents retired there in 1984. Passionate about architecture and urban history, she is fascinated by the city’s history and has been documenting its radical transformation for more than 20 years.

Born and raised in France from American parents, Kimberley Gaultier studied photography at San Francisco State University and the Ecole Nationale de Photo in Arles, France, then obtained a master’s in film at the Université Paris 8 in 1996. She then worked in film production in Paris, notably as a script reader, before joining the French Consulate in 2003.

Cécile Lacheteau

Jacques Baran

On September 1, 2021, Jacques Baran joined the French Consulate General in New Orleans as Cultural Attaché, after having spent 12 years working for the International Relations Department of the City of  Toulouse in Southern France, fostering international cooperation with local governments. As project officer, he worked with cities around the world, such as Montréal, Atlanta, Kiev, Düsseldorf and Tel Aviv, developing various projects in different fields. In particular, he worked to set up an exchange of graffiti artists between the cities of Toulouse and Atlanta as part of the Elevate Festival.

A native of Paris, Jacques completed an MA in American Civilization at the University of Paris Diderot before working as a French language teaching assistant at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He then started working as Educational Manager for Hachette, the largest publishing company in France, promoting French language textbooks in Europe and Africa.

Prior to coming to the US, Jacques was President of the Alliance Française in Toulouse, an organization that aims to promote the French language and francophone cultures around the world. He also co-founded and directed the film festival “Des Images Aux Mots” in Toulouse for 10 years.

Today, as Cultural Attaché and Director of Villa Albertine in New Orleans, he supervises the residencies of French artists in Louisiana and strengthens collaboration with American cultural and educational partners.

Gabi Grenier

Sabine de Maussion

Sabine de Maussion is the new Cultural Attaché for Villa San Francisco. She studied at the Sorbonne and Inalco as part of a master’s degree in comparative literature and then at Paris Dauphine University for a second master’s degree in the management of cultural institutions. De Maussion later joined the Ph.D. Curatorial / Knowledge program at Goldsmiths College, University of London. She spent several years in artistic programming and international relations at La Grande Halle de la Villette, at the Center Georges Pompidou, or at le CentQuatre, a cultural space in Paris. De Maussion worked in cultural diplomacy within the Institut Français in Cairo and Damascus. She then moved to Beirut, where she stayed for several years. Sabine de Maussion taught Visual Cultures at the American University, at Saint Joseph University with a master’s degree in “Curatorial and Art Criticism,” and at the Beaux-Arts.

It was also in Beirut that she let her entrepreneurial spirit emerge and participated in the creation of Urbacraft. She continued as a start-up co-founder in EdTech with Makerbrane, a 3D design education platform for school audiences. After years filled with many different experiences, she arrived in San Francisco to return to cultural diplomacy. In her new role, she merges a solid academic background, an entrepreneurial spirit, and a strong attraction for education and the transmission of knowledge.

David Do Paço

Nicole Lavay

Louise Le Cam

Lynda Frenois

Yann Le Merdy