Open House, May 21: Come learn about our unique international primary education for children in preschool through elementary and meet our teachers.
Meet our Team
Experienced, professional educators
Our teachers are native and multilingual speakers with extensive experience living, attending school, and working outside of the US. Our academic team members are experts in early childhood education and language acquisition.
All full-time staff is trained in First Aid and CPR.
Katia Edrenkina
Founder and CEO
Raising two trilingual children in San Antonio inspired Katia to found ISSA as a support for other parents raising multilingual children. She calls San Antonio home, but living on three continents taught Katia the importance of breaking language barriers. Katia holds a Master’s degree in finance from Financial University in Russia and a Master’s degree in nonprofit leadership from the University of Pennsylvania. She brings 15+ years of business and entrepreneurial experience to ISSA.
Prior to founding ISSA, Katia served as Vice President of Customer Success for Rallyware, a SaaS company, and before that as Manager of Sustainability and Corporate Citizenship for Samsung Electronics America, where she developed an award-winning environmental stewardship program for children across the United States.
Mary Field
Head of School
Mary Field holds a Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from Arizona State University. Her thesis was focused on language learning in a dual-language Chinese kindergarten. She holds certification from the Chinese Ministry in Education (Hanban) in Mandarin Chinese. She also holds certificates of study from the Chinese University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, the Southwest University for Nationalities in Chengdu, and Soochow University in Suzhou. She earned her BA from Fordham University in New York. Prior to joining ISSA, Mary taught in an IB-accredited kindergarten in China and developed other Chinese immersion programs in Austin and San Antonio.
Having spent seven years living in different cities of China—including San Antonio’s sister city of Suzhou—Mary brings a rich understanding of Chinese culture to ISSA.
Anne-Victoire Bonnamour
Lead teacher (French)
Anne-Victoire comes to ISSA after eight years at the Agnes Irwin School (AIS)—one of the top independent schools in the Philadelphia area—where she taught French in the Middle and Upper school and was Dean of 5th and 6th grades. Prior to AIS, she held teaching positions at UT Austin, Lehigh University, and Montgomery County Community College. Anne-Victoire holds both a BA and MA from the Université Jean Moulin (Lyon III). Born and raised in Lyon, France, Anne-Victoire is thrilled to be in Central Texas with her husband, Fred, and their three children, Romane, Joseph, and Sacha.
Xiao Wun (Athena)
Lead teacher (Mandarin Chinese)
Xiao Wun (Athena) comes to San Antonio from Hong Kong; where she taught Mandarin Chinese for two decades. Originally from Anhui Province, Athena has the highest levels of certification as a Mandarin Chinese teacher from the Chinese government. She is also certified as a National Youth Language Arts Quality Assessor. Her students have won numerous Mandarin Chinese speech competitions in Hong Kong. In addition to her numerous qualifications as a Mandarin Chinese teacher, Athena also holds a degree in music.
Caroline Olivares
Lead teacher (Spanish)
Born in Santiago de Chile, Caroline Olivares is our Lead Spanish Teacher. With over 10 years of professional experience, she has worked with children from toddlers to teens, applying special emphasis in Literacy Education. Teacher by vocation and artist by hobby, she loves painting, drawing, and crafting arts.
Caroline received Licenciada en Educacion/Bachelor of Education, with specialization in Elementary Education, from Universidad Diego Portales. She also holds a Graduate Diploma in Curriculum and Educational Administration from the Universidad de Santiago de Chile and the UNESCO Graduate Diploma in Environmental Education from the Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi.
Shuang Hoffer
Chinese Teacher
Shuang teaches Mandarin Chinese in our Saturday program. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration. Having extensive experience in event planning and marketing in China, she joins ISSA to continue her career and share her passion for Chinese culture with the San Antonio children.
Liliane Khnayzer
French Teacher
Liliane brings more than 25 years of teaching experience to ISSA. Prioir to ISSA, she taught French language, literature and science to children in preschool through middle school in public and private schools in Lebanon.
At ISSA, Liliane teaches our youngest students in the French preschool prep program and students 3-6 years old in our Saturday Classes.
Sasha Nochovka
Art Teacher
Graduated from The University of Texas at San Antonio with Master’s in Fine Arts (faculty of ceramics), Sasha teaches art classes in our school program. She participated in various art exhibitions and received “People’s Choice Aword” for 25th Annual Contemporary Art Month.
Sasha has been engaged in pedagogical activity since 2010, when she taught at St. Phillips College and UTSA.
For the past 5 years Sasha has worked with pastels and attended master classes from famous artists. During this time, she obtained certification in pastel arts and became a member of the National Pastel Society of Russia.
Classes Faculty
Sandra Uriegas
Spanish teacher
Sandra teaches Spanish for children 3-12 years old. Originally from Colombia, she is a graduate of the Fundacion Politecnico Grancolombiano in Bogota. She worked with young children in California before relocating to San Antonio with her family. Sandra loves to share her native language with young learners and has a passion for encouraging Spanish literacy.
Audrey Brunner
French teacher
Born in Switzerland, raised in France and Texas, Audrey Brunner is a bilingual professional with an international perspective. She primarily teaches French immersion classes for children 6-12 years old. With law school on her radar, Audrey is finishing a B.A. in Politics and Law at UTSA and works as Creative Director at SATX Consultants.
Yinan Chen
Mandarin Chinese Teacher
Yinan is a bi-lingual Mandarin and English speaking teacher. Prior to joining ISSA, she worked as Instructor of Chinese language and culture at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Marina Humphries
Russian Teacher
Marina graduated from the Tomsk State University in Russia, Department of Foreign Languages, with a diploma in Linguistics and Intercultural Communication. She has more than 10 years of experience as a teacher and translator.
Anita Sangbong
French Teacher
Margot Duque
French Teacher Assistant
Kelsey Sanchez
Spanish Teacher Assistant
Advisory Board
Pattie Davis
President and CEO, Mount St Mary Academy and Foundation
Pattie lends us her wealth of knowledge and experience as a teacher, principal, and superintendent. She received a PhD in education with a focus on international education and entrepreneurship from the University of Incarnate Word in San Antonio. She earned her master’s degree in educational administration from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2004, as well as her bachelor’s degree in elementary education in 1995.
Judy McCarter
Public Relations & Communications
Judy’s communication background is extensive. She has more than 30 years of experience in corporate and agency public relations. She also has served in market research, advertising, corporate marketing, and communication roles in multiple organizations.
Jason Straughan
Chief Executive Officer, Codeup
Codeup is a San Antonio-based career accelerator that uses an immersive approach in training software development to students with little to no prior programming experience. Jason serves as CEO and is also on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of Tech Bloc. He has invested in local startups, founded several companies, and is an active member of Vistage, an international speaker, a TechStars Mentor, and published author.
Christy Schumann
Vice President of Operations, Toptal
Christy is a global business operations and strategy leader, with more than 10 years of experience in management consulting and P&L ownership. Her rigorous academic background includes a B.S. from MIT and an MBA from Columbia Business School. She helps ISSA improve its operational performance to ensure a sustainable financial future.