Board of Directors
Please note that our organization is completely self-financed.
We depend on your membership fees, participation in classes and donations to function.
All board members are volunteers.
If you are interested in serving on the board, please contact Alice Hanes at president@afjackonville.org
We depend on your membership fees, participation in classes and donations to function.
All board members are volunteers.
If you are interested in serving on the board, please contact Alice Hanes at president@afjackonville.org
President
Alice Hanes
Alice was born and grew up in Seoul Korea until she was 18 years old. Then in 1974, she moved to Bloomington, Indiana and finished her undergraduate degree and her Doctor of Optometry degree from Indiana University. After she met her husband at school, they have lived across much of the United States, Texas, Indianapolis, Chicago,and Holland, Michigan.
Two years ago, her husband retired from his work as an anesthesiologist and they decided to move to Atlantic Beach to be close to their older son and his family, especially their first granddaughter who is now almost two years old. She and her husband, Rick have always had a love of the French language as well as the French culture. They have gone to France many times in the past 10 years including 6 weeks of living in Bordeaux, where they attended and loved going to French language school. Shortly after retiring and moving to the Jacksonville area, one of the first things they did was to join and participate in Alliance Française de Jacksonville. They enjoy meeting friends through Alliance Française as well as learning the French language and culture. Alice also enjoys playing piano, cooking and reading.
Vice President/Membership
Roberto Guardia
Roberto has been a member and student of the Alliance Francaise de Jacksonville since 2014. In June 2016, Roberto and his wife Marisa participated in the fantastic Nantes immersion program. Roberto, originally from Panama, moved to Jacksonville in 2006 after living in the Seattle area for 20 years. Roberto and Marisa have four wonderful adult children spread out in Seattle, Raleigh, NC and Jacksonville. Roberto has many years of experience as a Geotechnical Engineer specialized in tunnels and works for a national reach firm. He enjoys road bicycling several times a week and traveling when possible in France, Spain and Italy. Roberto and Marisa had their first grandson on December 2020 in Raleigh, NC.
Treasurer
Rolf Leimgruber
Rolf was born in the German speaking part of Switzerland just outside Zurich. Part of his mandatory language curriculum in secondary school was French. Working as an apprentice in an international logistics company simultaneously continuing to learn French in business school, he had the opportunity to use the language dealing with offices in France and Belgium.
This led to an internship as a trainee ("stagiaire”) in Paris for 18 months and he subsequently transferred to New York. In New York he continued his studies of French at the Alliance Française. The job also provided opportunities to interact in French with overseas offices. He met his wife in New York and after a few years they moved to Atlanta, GA. Following their stint in Atlanta, they moved to London, and then returned back to Switzerland. Living in Switzerland Rolf worked with clients in the watch industry and not surprisingly, the corporate language was French. His next move was to a French company in Hong Kong with a corporate language of French. That allowed him to travel throughout Asia experiencing multiple cultures and food. Moving back to Jacksonville in 2016 and rejoining the Alliance Française, he took part in the language and cultural exchange with Nantes, France in 2018. He is now retired and joined the board as Treasurer in the summer of 2020. Besides English and French, he also speaks German with basic knowledge of Spanish and Italian. His hobbies include cooking, wine, traveling (67 countries and counting), as well as supporting various charities financially.
Secretary
Allison Cato-Jackon
Allison Jackson is a lifelong French language learner and francophile. After majoring in French and Psychology as an undergraduate, she made a career choice to practice neuropsychology. Nevertheless her avocation continues to be learning about and engaging in all things French-related including honing her French conversational skills, and developing her knowledge in French and francophone culture, literature, cuisine, and cinema. Allison is a mother of 2 girls both of whom have enjoyed taking part in French language learning classes at the Alliance. Allison enjoys the conversational classes, cinema club and other social events sponsored by AFJ. She loves connecting with other French language and culture enthusiasts and meeting native French speakers in the community. Finally, Allison is fortunate to have a supportive husband who enjoys learning about French history when visiting France with his own French-speaking tour guide!
Events
Sofie Bogaerts
Sofie grew up in the Flemish part of Belgium near the Dutch border. Though she loves her Flemish culture, she was always on the look-out for travel and to discover new horizons. She met her husband Thomas at the KU Leuven university where she got an MA in French and Italian Linguistics and Literature. She briefly taught French and Modern Foreign Language Didactics in college and high school but in 2005 she moved to the South of Rome with her husband and two daughters. After that, they lived a couple of years in Moscow, in London, São Paulo Brazil and again London to end up in Jacksonville in August 2019. During all the moving, Sofie has taught French, music and French literature in both British and American international schools. In Brazil, she volunteered in an after school program teaching middle school children English and French in a favela. Together with a friend, she also started up an English learning program at an orphanage.
Sofie enjoys cooking, reading, going out and playing with her dog.
Website
Jean-Michel Bourgade
Jean-Michel was born in Paris and raised in the “ville-parc” of Le Vesinet, near Versailles. He attended a catholic high-school in Rueil-Malmaison (near Napoleon’s Chateau). He then studied in an “Ecole d’Ingenieurs” in the heart of Paris and graduated with a MS in Computer Engineering. He worked in the Software & Telecom industries in Paris and then Sophia Antipolis, the “French Silicon Valley” on the French Riviera. There in the medieval village of Valbonne, he met and married his American wife from Nashville, TN. He later obtained an MBA from a business school in South of France and moved to work for the Pharmaceutical industry in Basel-Switzerland. Each day he commuted to live in French Alsace across the border of Switzerland and Germany (locals speak French Alsatian and Swiss-German dialects!). In 1999 he moved with his wife and French-American daughters to work for the Software industry in Boston, MA and then for the Financial Services industry in Richmond, VA. Each time he joined French community associations and raised his daughters in French as feasible… Finally he moved to Jacksonville in 2008 to work in 6 Sigma and healthcare analytics for the Healthcare Insurance industry. Dedicated travelers with his wife, he returns every year for long visits with family and friends in various regions of France and to further explore Europe. He joined the local Alliance Francaise Board in 2020 to help with the website presence.
Director
Eugenia Charoni
Eugenia Charoni is Associate Professor of Romance Languages at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, where she teaches courses in French and Spanish language, culture and literature. She holds a master in archaeology, a master in education with focus on foreign language teaching methodology, a master in French and a PhD on romance languages. She started her career as K-12 teacher in French and Spanish before she moved to Higher Education. Originally from Greece, she moved to the USA in 2004 and since 2016 she lives in St Augustine. While in Europe, she was working in the tourism industry where she furthered her language skills and expanded her cultural competence. Languages are an integral part of her life and in every chance, she travels for research or with her students to French and Spanish speaking countries. She is a certified Zumba instructor and, in her classes, she plays several French songs while she spreads her love for languages, culture and fitness. In addition, she loves spending time with her family and friends, cooking and going to the beach.
Director
Stephane Jeanin
Advisor
François Kloc-Consul Honoraire de France, Honorary Consul in Jacksonville
Francois Kloc began his career in the world of music in 1983 as an apprentice, worked for several internationally renowned companies and "landed" in the United States of America in December 1996. Since then, he has worked to promote the French language, culture and French know-how in the field of wind musical instrument making in North America in his capacity as employee within the company Buffet Crampon (flagship of the French instrument maker since 1825), as Honorary Consul from France to Jacksonville, member of the Alliance Française de Jacksonville and of Sister Cities Associations (Nantes-Jacksonville committee) and as a Trustee on the board of the Jacksonville Chamber of
Commerce. He participates in the "DC fly-In" every year with his colleagues from the NAMM (National Association Music Merchants) to meet members of Congress to raise awareness of the importance of music and the arts as an important part of children's development in the school environment. This work was key to the creation of the text of "Title IV A" which is part of the ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) and which was signed by President Obama in December 2015 after Congress passed this law. For 2 years now, he has been part of the coalition created to discuss and negotiate tax relief and taxes imposed on musical instruments (CITES) as well as to work on economic issues and impacts due to import taxes. Since 2010, as the Honorary Consul of France in Jacksonville, he is the Liaison of the Consulate General
of France in Miami in the northeast of Florida to serve the French nationals of the region as well as to work with the local authorities on economic, cultural and security topics. In 2017, Francois graduated from the Fall classes of the Jacksonville Citizen FBI Academy program.
Francois Kloc is Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite (Knight in the French National Order of Merit) which was awarded to him by President Emmanuel Macron
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Education Administrator
Christelle Tsalefac Tedom
Alice Hanes
Alice was born and grew up in Seoul Korea until she was 18 years old. Then in 1974, she moved to Bloomington, Indiana and finished her undergraduate degree and her Doctor of Optometry degree from Indiana University. After she met her husband at school, they have lived across much of the United States, Texas, Indianapolis, Chicago,and Holland, Michigan.
Two years ago, her husband retired from his work as an anesthesiologist and they decided to move to Atlantic Beach to be close to their older son and his family, especially their first granddaughter who is now almost two years old. She and her husband, Rick have always had a love of the French language as well as the French culture. They have gone to France many times in the past 10 years including 6 weeks of living in Bordeaux, where they attended and loved going to French language school. Shortly after retiring and moving to the Jacksonville area, one of the first things they did was to join and participate in Alliance Française de Jacksonville. They enjoy meeting friends through Alliance Française as well as learning the French language and culture. Alice also enjoys playing piano, cooking and reading.
Vice President/Membership
Roberto Guardia
Roberto has been a member and student of the Alliance Francaise de Jacksonville since 2014. In June 2016, Roberto and his wife Marisa participated in the fantastic Nantes immersion program. Roberto, originally from Panama, moved to Jacksonville in 2006 after living in the Seattle area for 20 years. Roberto and Marisa have four wonderful adult children spread out in Seattle, Raleigh, NC and Jacksonville. Roberto has many years of experience as a Geotechnical Engineer specialized in tunnels and works for a national reach firm. He enjoys road bicycling several times a week and traveling when possible in France, Spain and Italy. Roberto and Marisa had their first grandson on December 2020 in Raleigh, NC.
Treasurer
Rolf Leimgruber
Rolf was born in the German speaking part of Switzerland just outside Zurich. Part of his mandatory language curriculum in secondary school was French. Working as an apprentice in an international logistics company simultaneously continuing to learn French in business school, he had the opportunity to use the language dealing with offices in France and Belgium.
This led to an internship as a trainee ("stagiaire”) in Paris for 18 months and he subsequently transferred to New York. In New York he continued his studies of French at the Alliance Française. The job also provided opportunities to interact in French with overseas offices. He met his wife in New York and after a few years they moved to Atlanta, GA. Following their stint in Atlanta, they moved to London, and then returned back to Switzerland. Living in Switzerland Rolf worked with clients in the watch industry and not surprisingly, the corporate language was French. His next move was to a French company in Hong Kong with a corporate language of French. That allowed him to travel throughout Asia experiencing multiple cultures and food. Moving back to Jacksonville in 2016 and rejoining the Alliance Française, he took part in the language and cultural exchange with Nantes, France in 2018. He is now retired and joined the board as Treasurer in the summer of 2020. Besides English and French, he also speaks German with basic knowledge of Spanish and Italian. His hobbies include cooking, wine, traveling (67 countries and counting), as well as supporting various charities financially.
Secretary
Allison Cato-Jackon
Allison Jackson is a lifelong French language learner and francophile. After majoring in French and Psychology as an undergraduate, she made a career choice to practice neuropsychology. Nevertheless her avocation continues to be learning about and engaging in all things French-related including honing her French conversational skills, and developing her knowledge in French and francophone culture, literature, cuisine, and cinema. Allison is a mother of 2 girls both of whom have enjoyed taking part in French language learning classes at the Alliance. Allison enjoys the conversational classes, cinema club and other social events sponsored by AFJ. She loves connecting with other French language and culture enthusiasts and meeting native French speakers in the community. Finally, Allison is fortunate to have a supportive husband who enjoys learning about French history when visiting France with his own French-speaking tour guide!
Events
Sofie Bogaerts
Sofie grew up in the Flemish part of Belgium near the Dutch border. Though she loves her Flemish culture, she was always on the look-out for travel and to discover new horizons. She met her husband Thomas at the KU Leuven university where she got an MA in French and Italian Linguistics and Literature. She briefly taught French and Modern Foreign Language Didactics in college and high school but in 2005 she moved to the South of Rome with her husband and two daughters. After that, they lived a couple of years in Moscow, in London, São Paulo Brazil and again London to end up in Jacksonville in August 2019. During all the moving, Sofie has taught French, music and French literature in both British and American international schools. In Brazil, she volunteered in an after school program teaching middle school children English and French in a favela. Together with a friend, she also started up an English learning program at an orphanage.
Sofie enjoys cooking, reading, going out and playing with her dog.
Website
Jean-Michel Bourgade
Jean-Michel was born in Paris and raised in the “ville-parc” of Le Vesinet, near Versailles. He attended a catholic high-school in Rueil-Malmaison (near Napoleon’s Chateau). He then studied in an “Ecole d’Ingenieurs” in the heart of Paris and graduated with a MS in Computer Engineering. He worked in the Software & Telecom industries in Paris and then Sophia Antipolis, the “French Silicon Valley” on the French Riviera. There in the medieval village of Valbonne, he met and married his American wife from Nashville, TN. He later obtained an MBA from a business school in South of France and moved to work for the Pharmaceutical industry in Basel-Switzerland. Each day he commuted to live in French Alsace across the border of Switzerland and Germany (locals speak French Alsatian and Swiss-German dialects!). In 1999 he moved with his wife and French-American daughters to work for the Software industry in Boston, MA and then for the Financial Services industry in Richmond, VA. Each time he joined French community associations and raised his daughters in French as feasible… Finally he moved to Jacksonville in 2008 to work in 6 Sigma and healthcare analytics for the Healthcare Insurance industry. Dedicated travelers with his wife, he returns every year for long visits with family and friends in various regions of France and to further explore Europe. He joined the local Alliance Francaise Board in 2020 to help with the website presence.
Director
Eugenia Charoni
Eugenia Charoni is Associate Professor of Romance Languages at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, where she teaches courses in French and Spanish language, culture and literature. She holds a master in archaeology, a master in education with focus on foreign language teaching methodology, a master in French and a PhD on romance languages. She started her career as K-12 teacher in French and Spanish before she moved to Higher Education. Originally from Greece, she moved to the USA in 2004 and since 2016 she lives in St Augustine. While in Europe, she was working in the tourism industry where she furthered her language skills and expanded her cultural competence. Languages are an integral part of her life and in every chance, she travels for research or with her students to French and Spanish speaking countries. She is a certified Zumba instructor and, in her classes, she plays several French songs while she spreads her love for languages, culture and fitness. In addition, she loves spending time with her family and friends, cooking and going to the beach.
Director
Stephane Jeanin
Advisor
François Kloc-Consul Honoraire de France, Honorary Consul in Jacksonville
Francois Kloc began his career in the world of music in 1983 as an apprentice, worked for several internationally renowned companies and "landed" in the United States of America in December 1996. Since then, he has worked to promote the French language, culture and French know-how in the field of wind musical instrument making in North America in his capacity as employee within the company Buffet Crampon (flagship of the French instrument maker since 1825), as Honorary Consul from France to Jacksonville, member of the Alliance Française de Jacksonville and of Sister Cities Associations (Nantes-Jacksonville committee) and as a Trustee on the board of the Jacksonville Chamber of
Commerce. He participates in the "DC fly-In" every year with his colleagues from the NAMM (National Association Music Merchants) to meet members of Congress to raise awareness of the importance of music and the arts as an important part of children's development in the school environment. This work was key to the creation of the text of "Title IV A" which is part of the ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) and which was signed by President Obama in December 2015 after Congress passed this law. For 2 years now, he has been part of the coalition created to discuss and negotiate tax relief and taxes imposed on musical instruments (CITES) as well as to work on economic issues and impacts due to import taxes. Since 2010, as the Honorary Consul of France in Jacksonville, he is the Liaison of the Consulate General
of France in Miami in the northeast of Florida to serve the French nationals of the region as well as to work with the local authorities on economic, cultural and security topics. In 2017, Francois graduated from the Fall classes of the Jacksonville Citizen FBI Academy program.
Francois Kloc is Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite (Knight in the French National Order of Merit) which was awarded to him by President Emmanuel Macron
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Education Administrator
Christelle Tsalefac Tedom