Our Team

Every member of our team is a native German speaker who strives to provide a culturally diverse language education to our students. Many of our colleagues have been part of our team for many years and have lived and worked in the United States or German speaking countries before coming to the German Language School of Naperville. All of our teachers speak German natively and English too!

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Anne Becker

Director

Anne grew up in Wuppertal, went to the University of Bochum and studied History, German Linguistics, German literature and Educational Science.

Anna Fesun

Teacher

Anna is originally from Ukraine and received her MBA in International Business at the University of Stuttgart. Anna is proficient in German, English, Ukrainian and Russian.

Caroline Curley

Assistant Teacher

Born and raised in Berlin, Germany, and with background in marketing, moved to Chicago through the German/American Youth Exchange program.

Holger Becker, PhD

Teacher

Born and raised in Schwelm (NRW), Germany, Holger earned a degree in German philology and a PhD in linguistics and moved to the US through a job assignment in 1993.

Libby Bradley

Teacher

Libby was raised in Vienna. She attended Wheaton College in the United States, and then worked in finance before having children. She loves to represent Austria at GLSN.

Melinda Beck

Teacher

Melinda lived in Cologne, Hamburg and Mannheim and majored in Germanic Studies, receiving her teaching certificate from Indiana University, Bloomington.

Sandra Nelson

Teacher

Born and raised in the suburbs of Cologne, Sandra came to the U.S. in 2008 to work as an Au-Pair for a family in Homer Glen, IL.

Alice Voss-Kantor

Teacher

Alice was born in the Rhineland (West Germany), and grew up in Frankfurt/Main. While living in Switzerland, a career opportunity brought her to Chicago.

Anna Schall

Teacher

Anna studied German Language Arts in Poland, before she worked as an investment advisor in Leipzig (Germany). In 2019 Anna came to the US with her husband.

Daniela Paulius

Teacher

Daniela was born and raised in Germany, studied education in Mainz and Köln (Cologne), and lived in Saarland and Freiburg before moving to Chicago.

Jacqueline Schüring

Teacher

Jacqueline was born in Dortmund, has a degree as a primary school teacher, and worked several years at an inner-city school in Ludwigshafen.

Lilly Riegger

Assistent Teacher

Lilly was born in Heidelberg, Germany. She currently attends Hinsdale Central High School, and ist happy to teach German to children at GLSN.

Nicole Simms

Assistent Teacher

Nicole was born in Saxony, Germany, worked in Office Management and HR, has recently taught German at DANK School, and currently works as a substitute PreK teacher.

Thu-Ly Truong

Teacher

Born in Cambodia, raised in Germany (Rhineland Pfalz) Thu-Ly studied law at the University of Greifswald and Würzburg/Germany and earned a PhD in civil law.

Angela Jöstlein

Director Emeritus (retired in 2021)

Angela founded GLSN in 2001 and served as the director until 2021. Born in Berlin, Germany, Angela earned a degree in Social Work in München, and moved to the US in 1970.

Annika Blencowe

Teacher

Annika grew up near Leipzig (Germany), worked in Neuss, studied economics, and then moved to the U.S with her husband and daughter in 2013.

Francy McNamara

Teacher

Francy grew up in Mannheim, Germany. She currently works at Swiss Steel Group. She's teaching for over 25 years at German schools in the Chicagoland area.

Kathrin Schmid

Teacher

Kathrin was born in Reutlingen, Germany and gained her Masters degree (MA) in communications and cultural anthropology at the University of Tübingen.

Linda Mantz

Teacher

Linda was born and grew up just outside of Hamburg, Germany. She is a certified daycare teacher, has an American husband, 4 children with two of them at GLSN.

Sabine Galagher

Teacher

Sabine was born in Bavaria, Germany and studied Chemical Engineering at the Technical University in Munich.

Tristan Druelinger

Teacher

Tristan was raised in a suburb of Chicago and got his degree in Education and German Language from Saint Louis University.