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Administration And Development
 Willy LeBihan
Founder and Head of School
Willy was born near Paris, France but spent most of his childhood in Brittany. He grew up in the countryside of Quimper, a medieval city that fosters much of the Celtic culture of Brittany. Willy studied Geology at French and Irish Universities and majored in Structural Geology. He is a published geologist who has researched mountain building processes through fieldwork in the French-Italian Alps. He taught Geology at Unity College and was a Teaching Assistant at the University of Maine, Orono. Willy LeBihan lives in South Freeport with his wife, Elizabeth Choate LeBihan, and their three children, Elise, Colin, and Zoé, who are students of the school. Willy is a certified teacher with 20 years experience in education. For four years, Willy served as President of the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF) Maine Chapter and served on the Board of FLAME, the Foreign Language Association of Maine. He taught at public and private high schools in Maine. Willy organized the "Grand Concours" National French Contest in 2002 and 2003 for the state of Maine. Willy is a recipient of the National Defense Medal from the French Marines and in 2009, he was awarded the prestigious Chevalier des Palmes Académiques, a Knighthood Order of Chivalry of France to academics and educators. The order was originally created by Napoleon. Mr. LeBihan structures the organization of L’Ecole Française du Maine, its campus, the curriculum and its assessment, teacher and staff recruitment, accreditation, special events, and much more. When not at school, Willy enjoys classical guitar, astronomy and Maine Lakes and wilderness. |
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 Elizabeth Choate LeBihan
Founder and Director of Admissions
Elizabeth earned her Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from the University of Maine at Farmington, with a concentration in Visual and Performing Arts. She completed her Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education/Child Development through the University of Phoenix. Elizabeth studied modern dance and choreography and was a member of the modern dance company, The UMF Dancers, for four years. She also attended University College Galway, Ireland as an exchange student, where she reconnected with her family there and met her husband, Willy, a graduate student at the time. She is a certified teacher with 18 years of experience in education. Before founding L’Ecole Française du Maine, Elizabeth taught self-contained classrooms at the Elementary and Middle school levels and French classes privately and in after-school programs throughout Central Maine. During her first year as a classroom teacher, Elizabeth received a national teaching award, being named as "One of the Nation's 100 Best First-Year Teachers." She was Maine's only recipient. In 2009, she was awarded the prestigious Chevalier des Palmes Académiques, a Knighthood Order of Chivalry of France to academics and educators. The order was originally created by Napoleon. Elizabeth is fluent in French and has raised her children to be bilingual. When not at school, Elizabeth enjoys reading (with a cat on her lap and dog at her feet), gardening, knitting and spending time with her family.
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 Wendy Betts
Development Coordinator
Wendy has nearly 20 years of experience in the field of child and family policy and research. She worked for eight years at the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service, Institute for Child and Family Policy. During her tenure at the Muskie School she worked on numerous federal, state, local and foundation grants and contracts both in Maine and in other states across the country. After receiving her Master’s Degree in Public Policy and Management she became the first Vice President of Operations of Youth Alternatives, a large statewide human service agency serving at-risk youth and families. Later, Ms. Betts served as Executive Director of Maine’s Camp Fire Boys and Girls organization where she provided management and oversight of one of the largest and oldest summer camps for children in Maine—Camp Ketcha, serving over 300 children per day. Ms. Betts has served as a private consultant to public and private human service organizations and private businesses throughout the state for the last six years, specializing in grant research and writing, program design and evaluation, policy and procedure creation, and systems analysis and design. She lives in an old family farmhouse in Casco, Maine with her husband and two small children.
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 Sandrine Moser
Assistant to the Head of School
Sandrine was born and raised in the south of France, specifically in a remote department called Ardeche. She graduated from the University Stendhal-Grenoble III with a major in Science of Languages. She trained then as a librarian at the IUFM (teacher training school) in Lyon for one year. She then went on to pursue one year training in education for elementary students at the IUFM in Nantes. She then took the opportunity to move for one year to California to take care of an eight year old. Her love for nature brought her family to live in a very remote area in Northern California where she enjoyed skiing. She taught French and Spanish to high school students in a one room school located at 7000 feet. Her love for discovering new areas bought her to the East Coast where she started to develop a love for woodworking . She enjoys reading, scrapbooking and making crafts with kids. She is looking forward to being a closer part of L'Ecole Française du Maine community.
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