Senior Leadership, Site Directors, and
Administrative Team

Maria Capelle-Burny

Assistant Head of School
Site Director, Brooklyn Heights Annex
Senior Leadership Team

Maria is a “Third-Culture Kid” who was raised by her Belgian/Filipina parents in six countries by the time she was 18 years old. She first felt a true bilingual connection with French when she was attending Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Maria went on to earn a master's degree in Educational Theatre from The Steinhardt School at New York University. As an educator, Maria’s multifaceted identity leads her to center the students and prioritize their learning, well-being, and sense of identity in the classroom and beyond. It is second nature for her to create community in the spaces she frequents – from student-led identity affinity spaces to faculty and family spaces.

This is Maria’s first year at Smith Street Arts & Lettres. She joins us from Grace Church School in Manhattan, where she was most recently the 7th and 8th Grade Dean, JK-8 Academic Scheduler, and Advisor to Families of Color. Prior to these administrative roles, Maria was a middle school advisor for almost a decade and taught Health and Wellness and French to lower and middle school students. On the weekend, you’ll find Maria deeply engaged in cooking for joy, spending time with her family, enjoying the outdoors.

Elizabeth Brown

Preschool Director
Site Director, Carroll Gardens
Senior Leadership Team

Elizabeth is one of the founding teachers of the Maternelle, and she has provided essential guidance in shaping the program since 2017. After teaching Moyenne Section for five years, including two of those years as curriculum coordinator, she is now the Preschool Director and Site Director at our Carroll Gardens location.

Elizabeth grew up in France in a little village just north of Paris. She was raised by an American father and a French mother. After University in France, she moved to Boston to better understand her father’s country. Elizabeth first worked at l’Alliance Française in Boston where she specialized in toddler classes. Three years later, she moved to New York to start a children’s program in a French language school in Williamsburg (Coucou French Classes). In 2015, she worked at the Lycée Français as a long term substitute teacher in their PreK, K and Elementary programs.

Education is Elizabeth’s passion. She is a big believer in play-based learning and differentiated pedagogy. Providing the children with the resources they need to reach new developmental milestones is an absolute thrill and a responsibility she’s truly grateful for.

Jessie Barker

DEIB Director
Elementary Curriculum Coordinator
Senior Leadership Team

Jessie has been in school all her life! Not only in her own educational development but because she was raised in the school her mother founded in Brussels. It was there that she became a teacher’s assistant as a teenager and started leading camps and after school programs. All through college at The Sorbonne in Paris, she continued teaching and tutoring. After obtaining a DEA in Linguistics, she moved to NYC where she worked in different educational settings. After a hiatus to be with her two children, and a 3-year stint as school director in Belgium, she became a head teacher at SLA International School. In February 2017, Jessie took her first step in a transformational journey in anti-bias education. It has since been the focus of Jessie’s professional and personal development.

Jessie’s fascination with children’s identity development stems from her personal story as a multiracial immigrant woman raised in Western Europe. Over the years she has had the opportunity to learn about, create and practice scaffolded strategies that disrupt and dismantle the systems of prejudice and discrimination baked into our society. The transformation of schools from a compliance and punishment paradigm to one of healing and joy is at the core of Jessie’s pedagogical beliefs.

Jessie joined the Arts & Lettres team in the Fall of 2021, and is thrilled this school year to be the full-time Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging. She looks forward to shaping and supporting the growth of the school as a community engaged in ongoing reflection and meaningful action.

Jessie enjoys dancing, cooking, reading, watching shows with subtitles and propagating plants. She loves to spend time with family and friends. Her greatest pleasures are learning and storytelling.

Kate Johnstone

Communications Director
Admissions Co-Director
Senior Leadership Team

Rachel Stepanek

Site Director, Brooklyn Heights
English Language Arts (K-4)

Rachel grew up in New Jersey, and has lived in Paris and Seattle, Washington. She has taught in bilingual schools for ten years, including at the French Immersion School of Washington and the Lycée Français de New York. At the Lycée, Rachel taught English to 1st-4th graders, was a founding member of the DEI Core Committee and the first faculty member selected as a DEI Coordinator. She received her Master’s Degree in International Educational Development from Teachers College in 2018.

Most recently, Rachel was the Associate Director of the Lower School at Far Brook School in Short Hills, New Jersey where she inspired the Lower School faculty, specialists, and administrators to work towards a cohesive vision and pedagogical framework of progressive education.

Rachel believes that schools should be a place of joy in which all students are valued and heard. In her free time, Rachel enjoys spending time with her husband and children, exploring parks, swimming, and planning weekend adventures.

Eli Kuner

Site Director, Gowanus

Eli’s journey as an educator started as a preschool teacher in New York fifteen years ago. Since then, he has worked as a teacher and administrator in Early Childhood and Elementary schools in California and Russia, including four years at a French/English preschool in Moscow. Eli holds an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership & Policy from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction from the University of San Diego. He also holds a B.A. in History and a B.A. in Art History from Arizona State University.

Eli is very excited to be joining Smith Street Arts & Lettres this year. He is pleased to be part of a team capable of creating such impactful learning environments and is already impressed by the great collaboration, creativity, compassion, and enthusiasm shown by the teachers in the school. He is confident this energy and eagerness will be shared with and inspire your children as well, and looks forward to making this a productive and meaningful year for all children and their families.

Marina Babakoff

Art Programs Director

Marina founded and leads the art programs of Smith Street Arts & Lettres. After completing her studies in France at L’École Nationale D’Art de Cergy and le Studio National Le Fresnoy, Marina created sound installations for art centers and led major podcasts for French national public radio. She moved to New York in 2002 with the project of developing a special art curriculum for and with children. When she arrived at Smith Street Maternelle in 2015, she created “le petit workshop” where children acquire a profound knowledge of art history, art techniques and the limitless amount of media and material available in our world. These classes allow students to experiment with the French language while also expressing their unique personalities through art.

Tara Meiners

Preschool Educational Specialist
Toute Petite Section Teacher, Brooklyn Heights

After completing her Master’s Degree in Bilingual Education at Hunter College, Tara taught in the French dual language program at P.S. 133. Before pursuing her graduate degree, Tara lived in Orléans, France and a town north of Paris teaching with the TAPIF program. She then pursued a teaching certification from the Center for Applied Linguistics in Besançon through a scholarship from the French Embassy. She has also worked as a literacy consultant for a book company specializing in resources for dual language classrooms, as well as a tutor at Smith Street Workshop since its inception.

Tara is passionate about play-based learning, respectful parenting, and language development. She loves to travel, dance, swim, and most of all, being a mother to her daughter, Olivia.

Barbara Shelsky

Director of Admissions and Human Resources

Born and raised in Paris, Barbara is a native French speaker. She graduated from La Sorbonne with a Master’s Degree in Management and Human Resources, and from L’Institut de Gestion Social (IGS-RH) with an MBA with a focus on human resources.

Moving to New York from France in 2000, Barbara employed her degrees first in restaurant management and then in fashion retail. In both the hospitality industry and her years in fashion retail, she made customer relations the hallmark of her career. Her involvement in the PS58 PTA as a mother of two bilingual daughters sparked an interest in working in education. She now puts her vast wealth of hospitality experience to work welcoming families into an enriching and valuable education for their children.

Marie-Theres Franke

Student Affairs and Special Events Coordinator

Marie, originally from Germany, relocated to South Carolina during Middle School. She pursued her passion for French in college, spending a year at La Sorbonne Paris IV. After 15 years as a freelance event producer in NYC, collaborating with artists, designers, and musicians, she joined Smith Street Arts & Lettres in 2021.