Staff

Emeline-Ulliman Headshot

Emeline Ulliman

Bonjour à tous! My name is Emeline Ulliman, and I am a native of Épinal, France. I received my B.A. and M.A. in English from the Université de Lorraine (Nancy campus), as well as an M.A.T.L. in French and TESOL from the University of Southern Mississippi, where I taught beginning French for two years.

I’ve also taught French for the State Department in Arlington, VA, and middle-school English in France. I joined the Alliance Française de Louisville in early 2017. I have lived in France, Mississippi, Virginia, West Virginia, and now Kentucky. I am married to a monolingual Ohioan and we currently have two cats and one dog.

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Cassidy Cardwell

Cassidy Cardwell assists in office duties as well as managing our social media platforms; Instagram and Facebook. She is passionate about language learning and began learning French as a second language as an adult. She is a university student studying International Relations and Global Health. She took part in a study abroad program in Summer 2023 in Lyon, France where she was immersed in the French way of life and improved her language skills. She hopes to complete her studies in France and one day reside in a Francophone country. Cassidy is honored to be a part of the AFL!

Board Members

Mandela Gapala

Mandela Gapala

Mandela Gapala is a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo but is now a U.S. Citizen. He earned a BA in Foreign Languages and International Studies with a minor in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies from Bellarmine University. He is the Employment Services Manager at Kentucky Refugee Ministries (KRM). In this position, he coordinates local employers to help them understand the special needs of Refugees and Immigrants in the workforce and advocates for advanced job opportunities. Besides his full-time position at KRM, Mr. Mandela is a community volunteer.

Ronda Reed

Ronda Reed

Ronda was born and raised in Louisville.  After graduating from Bellarmine with an accounting degree, she went on to become a CPA working for KPMG.  Once she met her husband, they began relocating and travelling around the US and Europe with their two children.  This travel sparked Ronda’s interest in learning the French language.  She and her husband moved back to Louisville and now Ronda enjoys taking French classes, biking in France, and promoting the French culture.  She is honored to be an AF Louisville board member.

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Myriam Mattsson

Myriam was born and raised in the Parisian region. In 2017, during college, she took an internship in Seattle, WA, where she met her now husband (who is American-Swedish, went to high school in Louisville and college at UK). After graduating with a master’s degree in international business management in the spring of 2021, she moved to Seattle. Then, in September 2022, they moved to Louisville, KY, to be closer to friends and sunshine. Myriam is a foodie who loves wine and traveling. She is happy to be a part of the Alliance Française de Louisville and share both the French culture and French with its members.

Julien Marechaux

Julien Marechaux

Julien is a French citizen who was born in Lyon but grew up in St Germain en Laye, the city where Louis XIV was born, about 20 min away from Versailles in the Parisian region.

When Julien was in middle school, he and his family moved to Madrid, Spain for 5 years. They then moved back to France where Julien finished high school and attended university. After graduating with his undergraduate degree, he moved to Edinburgh Scotland where he met his wife (who is from Lexington, KY). Together, they lived for a little bit in Rouen, Normandy where she took French classes at l’Alliance Francaise while Julien was getting his Masters in Management and Marketing.

They moved to Kentucky in 2014, where Julie received his MBA in Accounting and started a financial career. They have 3 boys that are Franco-American and are trying to raise them with both cultures. Julien is a huge sports fan (always ready to talk about football (soccer), rugby or any other sport) and he frequently returns to France. When stateside, Julien loves sharing French culture with others.

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Jan Gonder

Jan was born here in Louisville, grew up in New Albany, was educated at Hanover College and Indiana University Bloomington/Southeast receiving degrees in Classical Greek and Accounting.  For the last 40 years Jan has lived in New York and Minneapolis, returning to Louisville last year.  She was born with an interest in french culture as her paternal grandmother came to the US as a child from a small village near Nancy, France.  For 20 years she was employed by the Alliance Française de Minneapolis et St Paul as Business Manager and is most happy to continue her association with all things french at our Louisville chapter.

James Natsis

James Natsis

James J. Natsis is a current faculty member at West Virginia State University. He is a former Peace Corp volunteer who served for two years in Chad, Sub-Saharan Africa, conducted his doctoral research in North Africa, and traveled the length of South America for 7½ months overland by backpack. He holds a BA degree in French, an MA in International Affairs—African Studies, and the Ph.D. in International Education from Ohio University.  He has published a monograph, journal and special interest articles, a number of op-eds, and presented papers at many regional and national conferences. He has directed grant projects in Benin, Costa Rica, Mexico, Canada and the Czech Republic, and served as external evaluator to a project in the Ivory Coast.

Natsis currently co-hosts the French-language podcast “Récits francophones au Coeur de L’Amérique.” He is fluent in French, and speaks Spanish and several other languages. He married the former Kenya Hurt and they have two sons, Ashton and Aidan. Both of his sons speak French.

Matt Straub

Matt Straub

Originally from Louisville, KY, Matt brings a diverse business background and international perspective to the AFL. Matt’s affinity for France and international business started at the age of 14 when he traveled to France with his high school French club.  This prompted Matt to study French for 9 years, including five months at the Université de Haute Bretagne in Rennes, France.

Matt earned a Bachelor’s degree in Finance, with minors in French and Economics from the University of Kentucky, and an MBA from the University of Louisville.  He started his career at Brown Forman Corporation where he spent 15 years working in Finance, five years in Corporate Strategy, and five years in Sales Operations. Matt spent 15 years of this time focusing on International Business, including four years living overseas in the Czech Republic and England. He later relocated to Florida for five years, before returning to Louisville.

After leaving Brown-Forman, he has leveraged his broad business background over the past seven years to do Merger & Acquisition work focused in the dental industry, and works along-side his wife in managing their family business “European Splendor,” which imports and sells European furniture, home accessories & gifts.  Happily married to Susan for 25+ years, Matt is an outdoor enthusiast, loves traveling, cycling, fine dining, and time with family & friends.

Andy Wolak

Andy Wolak

We moved to Louisville in 2008. While working for a printing company, Carole and I started a publication featuring a directory of green and sustainable business and articles about the sustainability movement in the Louisville Metro Area. I served on several non-profit boards as Vice President and Treasurer. I applied for an received approval for two 501(C3) non-profits, Bluegrass Bioneers and New Roots. I retired in the spring of 2021 and have been happily grinding rocks for folding knife scales and chef knife handles and selling at art shows.

Antoine Berberi

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