Margot M. Steinhart, La Médaille d’Or de La Renaissance Française

Margot Steinhart was designated by La Renaissance Française-Paris as an award recipient at the international level on November 15, 2022.

Margot has been recognized for her engagement as an educator, a leader, and one who seeks collaborative opportunities to promote and support French studies and to connect groups and individuals with a mutual interest in French language and francophone cultures.

Projects that she has undertaken have focused on the promotion of and advocacy for French programs, chairing a partnership between the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF) and the Fédération des Alliances Françaises (Fédération), and collaboration with the French Cultural Services and the Quebec Ministry of International Affairs to produce videos which validate learning French. Margot’s contributions also include coordinating the French Advocacy Resource Bank, comprising 200 digitized materials on the AATF website, serving as co-chair and editor of national learning standards K-16, presenting sessions at numerous national language conferences, and authoring several published articles. While president of her Alliance Française chapter, she coordinated a video recording in French with English subtitles and a companion bilingual publication of World War II stories recounted by 18 chapter members representing 14 countries.

Margot holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in French Literature from Northwestern University and a B.A. in French from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. For over 40 years, she taught French in two Chicago-suburban school districts and at Northwestern University.

She currently serves as vice-president of the American Society of the French Academic Palms (ASFAP), vice-president of La Renaissance Française-USA, and board member of the Fédération. Previously, she served as president of AATF and ASFAP and as The French Review editor for the rubric “Course Materials and Methodology.”

She is a recipient of several awards, including the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages’ Florence Steiner Award for Leadership in Foreign Language Education, the AATF/Dorothy S. Ludwig Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Illinois Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Foreign Language Learning. Margot was promoted to the rank of Commandeur in the Ordre des Palmes académiques and awarded the rank of Chevalier in the Ordre national du Mérite.

Elizabeth Stribling, La Médaille d’Or de La Renaissance Française

Elizabeth Stribling has served as Chairman of the Board of the French Heritage Society since 2007 and has served on the Board of Directors since 2002. She founded the successful real estate brokerage of Stribling & Associates in 1980, and in 2019 sold it to a national brokerage, where she is Vice Chairman, New York Development.

She is a recipient of the French National Order of Merit with the rank of Officer as well as being awarded the rank of Officer in the Legion of Honor by the French Government. In 2018 she was promoted to the grade of Commandeur in the Legion of Honor.

Elizabeth is currently on the Board of Governors of the Real Estate Board of New York. She is a former Trustee of The Hewitt School in New York City, from which she graduated.  She received a BA cum laude from Vassar College, and did graduate work at Girton College, Cambridge University.

Additionally, Elizabeth is a board member of the American Hospital in Paris, a member of the French-American Foundation and the Paris-American Club, a patron of the American Friends of Blérancourt, the Louvre and the Paris Opera, Columbia’s Maison Française and the Lyric Arts Festival in Aix-en-Provence.

Mrs. Stribling is currently on the Board of Directors of the New York Landmarks Conservancy, the Women’s Committee of Central Park Conservancy and the American Hospital of Paris. She and her husband are also the founding members of FHS’s Ambassadors Circle.

Catherine Ousselin, La Médaille d’Or du Rayonnement Culturel

Catherine Ousselin is a graduate of the University of Kansas with a M.A. in French Language and Literatures. A high school teacher since 2001, she currently teaches French I-AP at Mount Vernon High in Washington State. Catherine is a frequent workshop facilitator on curriculum development and technology integration and is widely recognized for her dedication to the teaching and learning of languages.

Her numerous awards include the 2014 ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of French) award for Excellence in Foreign Language Instruction Using Technology with IALLT (K-12). She was a finalist for the 2018 ACTFL Teacher of the Year and is a Chevalier in the Ordre des Palmes académiques. 

As a recognized advocate for French teachers and learners, she maintains a high profile among teachers through her volunteer efforts to support them in their curriculum development, classroom activities, and technological skills. She designed a collaborative website for teachers to share their lessons and activities and then connected with the Institut Français to became one of the first animatrices of the IFProfs USA site.

As the Director of Social Media and Content Curation for the American Association of Teachers of French, Catherine has curated a veritable goldmine of authentic and essential materials for teachers in the AATF’s Pinterest, YouTube, and Wakelet collections. In the early days of the pandemic, she was active in providing additional support as teachers struggled to turn their classroom into virtual classrooms. 

Catherine is the current president of PNCFL (Pacific Northwest Council for Languages). She was a contributing author on Thèmes, AP French textbook, and T’es branché 4 textbook. Her additional publications include five curricular material reviews in The French Review and multiple technology articles in The National Bulletin of the AATF. 

Catherine’s travels have taken her around the francophone world where she has gained a broad knowledge and appreciation for the value of the French language and francophone culture