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

DSD I, Children Heritage 3

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

Melinda Beck

Preschool and 6-year olds

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

Sandra Nelson

Krabbelgruppe

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.

Daniela Paulius

Children Heritage Speaker 1, Adult Intermediate 2

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

Anna Schall

Adult Beginner

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

Anna Fesun

Children German 1a

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.

Tristan Druelinger

Children German 4

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

Holger Becker, PhD

Adult Conversation

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.

Alice Voss-Kantor

Children Heritage Speaker 2, Adult Intermediate I

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.

Angela Jöstlein

Director Emeritus (retired in 2021)

Angela founded GLSN in 2001 and served as the director until 2021. She was born in Berlin, Germany. Angela earned a degree in Social Work in München, and moved to the US with her family in 1970.

Annika Blencowe

Children German 1b

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.

Sabine Galagher

Children German 3

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

Kathrin Schmid

Children German 2

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

Thu-Ly Truong

Second grade

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