BOARD OF DIRECTORS
2024-2025
The AFC is fortunate to have a talented and eclectic group of dedicated Board Members, each of them bringing something unique to the table. They generously give their time, expertise, and money for the benefit of our organization. We are grateful for their hard work and dedication!
Steve Benton
President
Steve began studying French in junior high. His teacher for 6 years, an expatriate from Paris, taught him a love of French language and culture. He studied a year at l’Université de Poitiers before earning a BA from the University of Oregon in Political Science and French. He enrolled in the Navy Post Graduate School in Monterey, CA. Following a 25-year-long career as a US Naval officer, Steve became the national director of a Manhattan design firm. He is now retired, but he is still studying French.
Alison Trimpe
Vice President
Alison was born in Perth, Western Australia and moved to Charlottesville in 2002. She holds a master’s degree in education and taught elementary school for 20 years in Australia, the UK, and the USA. Seven years ago, she opened her own preschool complete with chickens, ducks and a vegetable garden and continues to enjoy teaching. Alison first fell in love with everything French when she spent a week in Paris at the age of 17 with her pen pal. Other pen pals led to stays in Ferney-Voltaire and Aix-en-Provence. Alison studied at the Alliance Française in Perth off and on and finally joined the AFC 3 years ago to finally improve her fluency and grammar once and for all. Alison is married with two teenage children.
Melinda Caldwell
Treasurer
Melinda and her husband Jeff moved to Charlottesville in 2016, drawn by the mountains, family, and the presence of an active Alliance Française. She grew up near Staunton, attended Duke University, spent a junior year in Paris, and received a B.A. in French with a minor in History. That somehow led to a stint with a non-profit production company, which led to CNN and then to HD Cinema, a bicoastal video production company founded with her husband while living in Atlanta. For work and for vacation, the two of them, sometimes with their two children, have visited France as often as possible, and Melinda spent another year there while her daughter was enrolled at a bilingual high school in Paris. Along the way, she’s tried to maintain some semblance of her college French through reading, films, and classes at the Alliances Françaises in Atlanta, Connecticut, Paris, Los Angeles and now Virginia. Melinda is also serving as a member of the AFC Events Committee.
Kate Boudouris Secretary
Kate Boudouris is a law librarian at the University of Virginia. She was born and raised in Ohio,where she studied French for many years. She majored in English Language & Literature at the University of Michigan, completing a creative writing thesis, and received her law degree from Yale Law School. Kate practiced energy and environmental law in Washington, D.C., and Charlottesville before transitioning to law librarianship, which affords her more time for hobbies like writing, spending time in nature--and of course, exploring French language and culture with the Alliance Française. During her legal career, Kate worked with various nonprofit organizations, both as a legal representative and an employee. She recently traveled to Bordeaux with the Alliance and looks forward to future travel in the francophone world.
Ray Cairnes
Ray, a native of South Carolina, has had an exciting journey living in New York, California, Georgia, Virginia - even internationally in London, England. Proud of his Scottish heritage, Ray can occasionally be spotted in a kilt in the Cairnes family tartan. Ray has lived off and on in Charlottesville over the last 30+ years where he and his husband Adam currently enjoy their "gentleman’s farm", tasting the wine of local vineyards and herding their two cats. Having traveled in 45+ US states and 30+ countries - Ray loves travel and immersing himself in new cultures!
A graduate of both the University of Virginia with a B.A. in French Language and Literature and Virginia Commonwealth University with a Masters of Teaching, Ray’s love of French began with his studies in high school in Roanoke, VA and found French to be a much more palatable major than pre-med at UVa. His study abroad consisted of an intense summer program through EF – Education First in Nice. Ray seeks out opportunities to maintain his French both locally through the Alliance Française of Charlottesville and through travel to intentionally experience the varieties of French having not only spent many vacations in Paris, but also visiting Quebec, Belgium, Switzerland, Monaco and Bora Bora!
Elisa Diehl
Elisa Diehl earned a B.A. in French language and literature (American University) and an M.S., in applied linguistics (Georgetown University) and taught English as a second language to adults in the Washington, D.C., area and in Alexandria, Egypt. In 1985, she joined the International Monetary Fund as a writer/editor and worked there for 23 years. She retired in 2008 and moved to Asheville, NC, and moved again in 2018 to be closer to family. Charlottesville, sister city of Besançon, where she spent her junior year of college, seemed the perfect place to end up. Since her retirement, Elisa has enjoyed various volunteer jobs and become active in the French-speaking communities of Asheville and Charlottesville.
Cornelia Granbery
Cornelia Granbery was born and raised in Nashville, TN, and retired to Charlottesville with her husband in 2017. She began her study of French in middle school and became completely enamored with the language and culture after a three month stay with a family in Montpellier as a young teen. She graduated from Tulane University with a major in French and Political Science, having spent her Junior year in Paris studying at the Sorbonne and Sciences Po. After obtaining an M.A. in International Business, she spent the first part of her working career at HCA in Nashville. She then became the Executive Director of Sister Cities of Nashville before beginning her teaching career. She spent some twenty years teaching elementary French and Spanish language and culture. Cornelia and her husband have three grown daughters and spend much of their time traveling.
Michelle Heuschen-Liégeois
Michelle Heuschen-Liégeois was born in the Belgian Congo, where she spent most of her childhood. She and her parents then moved to Belgium, where she studied Greco-Latin Humanities. She worked as an assistant in medical biology at the University of Liège, focusing on immunology at the Experimental Surgery Laboratory in charge of cell culture and radioactive elements. After their marriage, she and her husband, who worked at General Electric, moved to the United States, where they spent time in Ohio, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Florida. Her husband’s career also took them to the Netherlands and the south of India. Throughout her life, she has remained very active in the communities where she lived. She founded an International Women’s Club, taught French in Holland and at the American Women’s Club in Antwerp, Belgium, and studied Spanish. While living in Naples, Florida, she became an Ikebana teacher. She and her late husband had two children. In March 2023, she moved to Charlottesville, Virginia to be near her two children and their families
Lucy Johnson, Ph.D.
Lucy Johnson is a retired educator who was born and raised outside of Baltimore, Maryland. She is the founding Vice-President of the Alliance Française of Charlottesville, Virginia and served on its first board of directors under Andrée King, President. Lucy’s love for France and the French language began at 17 when she participated in a summer exchange program in Lille, France. She studied for three semesters in Paris at the Sorbonne Nouvelle and Sciences Po and earned a B.S. in French from Georgetown University. She received an M.A.T. in French from the University of California, Berkeley and ultimately earned a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Virginia. Lucy taught French and Spanish on the high school level in Massachusetts and Virginia. She also taught French for the after-school program for the AFC. Lucy has served on several boards of local nonprofit organizations in addition to volunteering extensively. Lucy shared her love of travel with her husband and children and continues to travel with friends, her children, and grandchildren.
Barry Keith
Barry Keith has taught students in French (levels 1-AP) and Spanish (levels 1-3) at Monticello High School since 1998 and holds a B.A. in French from the College of William and Mary and a M.Ed. from Virginia Tech. Barry has served with the College Board as a reader for the AP French Language and Culture exam since 2005. He taught a course in phonetics and linguistic discovery at the Académie Française, a three-week residential immersion summer program for high school students, from 2010 through 2020. He has also organized a homestay exchange program between Monticello High School and Lycée Claude Nicolas Ledoux in Besançon. Barry has been a member of the AFC for more than a dozen years.
Sarla Mahara
Sarla is the Founder and President of AIM International, a Charlottesville, Virginia headquartered 501 (c) (3) Organization with global charitable outreach. Prior to AIM, between 2000-2015, Sarla was Director of Overseas Programs and Senior Vice President at Christian Aid and served as an Officer of the Board. Born and raised in Nepal, she earned her undergraduate degree in Interior Design from New Delhi Polytechnic College in 1987, and owned and operated an Interior Design Consulting firm in Kathmandu, Syntony Designs, between 1987-89.
Since her time as a design student, Sarla was interested in everything French which prompted her to join the Alliance Française in New Delhi (1986-87) and Kathmandu (1987-89) to study French. Her pursuits of further studies brought her to Marseilles where she studied Design and Architecture at the L'École des Beaux-Arts between 1989-91. Since 2021 Sarla has also been partnering with the French charity organization Les Amis Des Enfants to make education accessible to young girls in South Asia. Sarla has lived in Charlottesville with her family since 2000, and she and her husband have three daughters. Sarla’s love for France is shared by her family, between 2020-2021, the Mahara’s spent a year in the South of France.
Taylor R. Odom, J.D.
Taylor Odom is an attorney based in Charlottesville. Taylor was born and raised in Louisiana where he began to study French. He received his undergraduate degree from Tulane University and law degree from Loyola University New Orleans. Before attending law school, Taylor spent a year in Metz, France, teaching English through the Teaching Assistants Program in France (TAPIF). While in France, Taylor developed a strong appreciation for the French language and culture which has brought him back to Europe and other francophone countries over the years. Taylor met his wife, who is a Virginia native, while in law school. Taylor relocated to Charlottesville with his wife in 2013 and has been involved with the Alliance Française since becoming a Virginian.
Lisa Russell
Lisa holds a B.A. with a French major and English minor and a M.A. in French from Illinois State University. Throughout her teaching career, Lisa organized study tours and exchange programs to France and Quebec to encourage students to use their French. Lisa was a Fulbright exchange teacher to Senegal and Morocco and taught West African literature and culture at the Académie Française program three times. In 2015, Lisa was awarded a Fulbright Distinguished Alumni Award in Teaching by the Fulbright Alumni Association. Lisa lives near Charlottesville with her husband where they enjoy country living and traveling.
Angela Saunders
Angela Saunders is a native Virginian who has lived most of her adult life in the Charlottesville and Crozet area. Her earliest childhood memories revolve around loving all things French and wanting to study French and travel to France. She has a double-major in French and Applied Mathematics and a Master’s degree in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia. Angela has worked on the Data Science team at UVA Health since 2015. She is a member of the events committee.
Betsy Woodard
Betsy Woodard, an attorney currently in solo practice, is a Charlottesville native. A history major at Smith College, she spent her junior year in Aix-en-Provence and Paris, taking courses at the Institut d'Études Politiques (Sciences Po). After graduating, she spent six years working in investment banking firms in Paris, Madrid and New York before returning to Charlottesville to attend the University of Virginia School of Law. Betsy has practiced both in law firms and as in-house counsel primarily in the areas of corporate and trust and estates law. She has served on the boards of a number of local nonprofit organizations, including the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, the Legal Aid Justice Center, and Piedmont Virginia Community College. Having joined AFC, she has found her conversation and literature classes an excellent way to bring back long-ago language skills and connect with the local Francophile community.