Lisa Scali
President
American by birth but francophile of heart, I am thrilled to be leading the Alliance Française du Maine in its mission to promote the French language in Maine. French has been always been an important part of my life. I studied it during the majority of my schooling, with long stays in Poitiers and Strasbourg during and after college. After completing my graduate work at Columbia University in the field of International Economic Policy, I returned to France and worked for 5 years in Paris for an American bank, in an office across from the beautiful Madeleine. It was a special time in my life and cemented my love of la langue française. Based in Maine since 2004, I am married to an American who also has a great love for French culture, and we have a daughter who is fluent in French. The cultural and linguistic benefits to my family are one of the reasons that I joined the Board of Directors of the Alliance in the first place. Professionally, I left finance a few years ago, and I’m now building a seaweed company called Ocean’s Balance. My circle of life is complete when seaweed and the French language cross paths, which happens more than you might might think, since the coasts of Maine, Canada and Brittany are each blessed with an abundance of algues.
Nicole Burnett
Co-Vice President
Nicole is a dual French and US citizen who grew up in Greenwich CT and SW France. She lived and worked in Paris, France for 9 years before moving back to the US. Nicole taught French for 30 years from elementary through high school in NH, CA, and CT and has since retired to Portland, Maine with her husband. Her mother was President of the Alliance Française of Greenwich for many years and now Nicole is thrilled to follow in her mother’s footsteps by becoming involved in the AFduME and sharing her love of France, its culture and the French language. Nicole and her husband continue to be active outdoors hiking and biking in addition to working part-time as ski instructors and spending time in Bordeaux, France where she has an apartment.
Jacqueline Bucar
Co-Vice President
An ardent Francophile, Jacqueline Bucar began her lifelong study of French, French culture, lifestyle and literature in Connecticut where she was born and lived until her retirement in 2014. She taught all levels of French at Hamden High School, a suburb of New Haven. Jacqueline brought her students on field trips to Montreal and Paris and loved watching her students while they stood in awe before the Eifel Tower (“It looks just like the picture in our book!”) or when they were amazed that when I and one of the lycéens in a Montreal school conversed with each other, that we actually were having a discussion with each other.
Jacqueline majored in French and graduated from the University of Connecticut and spent 3 months working in a Parisian bookstore where she had the pleasure of knowing the inhabitants of the neighborhood and the joy of talking with each of them each day when they stopped to buy their newspaper or favorite magazine. It was an experience that she never forgot.
Jacqueline also earned a Master of Liberal Studies at Wesleyan University. And while she enjoyed reading and learning about literature and history, her love was and is always teaching French. In fact, once retired and relocated to Maine, she has been teaching Intermediate French at OLLI in Portland.
Because of declining enrollment in the 80s and the fact that she was the youngest person in the French department, Jacqueline found herself laid off each year and no job security despite being tenured. So, she went to law school at the University of Connecticut School of Law and became a lawyer with expertise in employment law and immigration law. Even as a lawyer though, she developed a French speaking clientele and represented SNCF as well as individual French clients.
Today, Jacqueline continues to teach Intermediate French at OLLI and belongs to a French book club where reading French novels and discussing them with ardent French readers and Francophones is one of great enjoyment. She looks forward to working alongside people who share these same passions as part of the Conseil d’Administration of the Alliance Française du Maine.
Camden Martin
Secretary
I am from Lewiston Auburn and my oirigins come from French Canada. I spent two years in higschool in the South of France in Nîmes. Furthermore, I did my superior education studying protection of the environment at Saint Félicien in the lake Saint John region of Québec. I work now at Museum LA in Lewiston, where teach anbout the industrial period as well as immigration. I have been implicating myself in French Language causes for many years as it is a subject that I hold very precious. I am passionate about foreign languages, history, as well as wildlife amongst many other subjects.
Bernard Cabrera
Treasurer
Nathalie Gorey
Academic Director
Nathalie is a native French speaker, originally from Normandy, but she was born and grew up until the age of 11 in Côte d’ivoire. After graduating from the University of Angers in the Pays de Loire region of France with her Master’s degree in Applied Languages to International Business and spending her final year studying in Ireland with the Erasmus program, Nathalie was hired by the University of Maine system to come be a teaching assistant for one year. She ended up meeting her future husband and continued teaching at UMM for five years. Nathalie’s first experience teaching had been while in Limerick, Ireland, at the local Alliance Française. Nathalie has now been living in Maine for the past 32 years and has also taught at UMA, as well as at the elementary and secondary school levels, more recently at Mt. Ararat HS in Topsham. Nathalie is also the President of the Maine chapter of the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF), and the French translator for the African newspaper for the new Mainers, Amjambo Africa!
Nathalie is passionate about teaching and sharing her native language, and the Francophone cultures.
Her role at the AFduME is to prepare the program of courses each season, to work with the teachers and offer placement tests when needed, as Directrice pédagogique. She is also the Administrator for the online digital library, la Culturethèque, and ensures that all our members are registered to enjoy this wonderful and free resource.
Regine Whittlesey
Member of the board
Born and educated in Nantes, France, in a large family, I arrived in Maine in 1974, as the first Amity Aide at Mt Ararat School in Topsham. There, I met my husband, David Whittlesey, an English teacher. We went back to live in Nantes where I finished my literary diploma and where we got married. From there began a long life of partnership that continues, more than 45 years later, after four children and three grandchildren. I started teaching French as a Foreign Language Teacher at Mt Ararat High School, under the tutelage of Nancy Thompson, an inspiring mentor who shared with me her joy of teaching. In 1980, my husband joined the Foreign Service, which started our international life. Throughout our diplomatic posts around the world (Iceland, Morocco, Washington DC, Bangladesh, Switzerland…), I have always taught, according to local needs.
Teaching has been my passion, and it still is, even after my retirement in 2020! After raising four bilingual children, I am particularly interested in helping children and adults become bilingual or keep up with their French heritage, hence my interest in this young Alliance Française du Maine.
We are fortunate to be in an environment where French is very present, initially because of the historical presence of Franco-Canadian families, who came to Maine at the end of the 19th century, early 20th century. Then, more recently, the large presence of immigrants from francophone Africa, and finally a smaller population of French-speaking European immigrants have contributed to enrich and give a new vitality to Maine francophonie.
So French is alive and well in Maine ! Our Alliance Française supports and encourages rich exchanges between all these communities who share, if not the same culture, at least the same language. I am most happy and honored to help, in any capacity, to build a place for Francophone exchanges, based on fraternity and tolerance.
Jacynthe Blais
Member of the board
Jacynthe Blais Jacques, a native French speaker from the Chaudière-Apalaches region of Québec, has lived and raised her family in Maine for the past 20+ years. While focusing on raising her family, she became acquainted with various local cultural and language programs and later got involved with the French Heritage Language Program activities at the Franco Center, where she taught French in after-school settings, developed family classes and extra-curricular programs, incorporating collaborative efforts with local agencies and a team of part-time teachers, assistants, and volunteers, to create cultural and linguistic opportunities for area students and adults. Passionate about language learning & access, as well as with the impact these have on community, she is now managing interpreting and accessibility programs at St. Mary’s Hospital. She is also the proud mémère of a lovely bilingual grand-child, and is staying involved as a board member of AFduME and Literacy Volunteers-Androscoggin.
Abigail Carroll
Member of the board
As a Maine native raised by a professor of French philosophy in an extended family of Francophiles, I am delighted to serve AFDUME’s mission. France and the French language have played a central role in my life. While in high school at Waynflete, I spent a junior year abroad in the Massif Central, culminating in my taking the French baccalaureate. In college, I majored in French and Spanish Literature, writing my thesis on Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptaméron. After obtaining a master’s degree in international affairs, I moved to Paris for over a decade where I worked in a variety of startups. In 2021, I sold Nonesuch Oysters, an oyster business that I started after returning from France in 2009. Today I am based in Maine where I host the “Happy Planet”, while enjoying significant stints in France where I continue to work with startups as a member of Paris Business Angels.
Alban Maino
Honorary Consul of France
Hugh MacPhail
Bookkeeper
After a wonderful career in the wine importing and distribution business, I retired and moved (back) to Maine with my wife in 2021. Speaking and writing French has been an essential part of my entire life – from my early education in French school in North Africa, to a major in French language and literature in college, to my years traveling the wine roads of France.
And so, I am extremely pleased to connect with the Alliance Française du Maine, and to discover the diverse and rich Francophone scene here in my new home. I wholeheartedly believe in the Alliance’s mission and outlook, and am happy to be of service in any way I can.
Stephanie Looten-Caceres
Administrative Assistant
Stephanie grew up in Savoie, in the French Alps, in a multicultural family bringing together the cultures of Alsace, Provence and Madagascar, and where meeting and sharing with others were core to her family values. Since then, Stephanie created her own intercultural family: her husband comes from Equator and her two children are growing up speaking three languages (French, Spanish and English). She is passionate about the Alliance Française du Maine’s adventure. She has been a French teacher for more than 20 years and a few years ago, was part of the small team who recreated the AF du Maine. She ‘s been the very first board member, even before it was official! and now Stephanie is the administrative assistant of the Alliance Française du Maine and happily helps the organization to flourish.