Administrative Team
Olivia Ramsey
Founder & Head of School
Olivia Ramsey is the founder and Head of School of Smith Street Maternelle and Smith Street Workshop, where she brings more than two decades of experience in bilingual and progressive education. Her work is grounded in a deep belief that children learn best through relationships, language, and meaningful engagement with the world around them.
A graduate of Earlham College in French and psychology and Bank Street College of Education, Olivia began her career teaching kindergarten at the Lycée Français de New York. She later joined the founding faculty of the PS 58 Dual Language Program, where she partnered with the French Embassy to develop curriculum, mentor teachers, and help shape one of New York City’s most respected public bilingual programs.
In 2015, Olivia began tutoring children in her living room and started a small playgroup inspired in part by the kind of early childhood experience she wanted for her then two-year-old daughter. What began as a deeply personal, community-rooted effort soon grew into Smith Street Maternelle, a thriving French immersion school across three Brooklyn campuses, and Smith Street Workshop, which now serves children and families well beyond the preschool years.
In 2025, she was named Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques by the French government, in recognition of her contributions to French language and culture through education.
Barbara Shelsky
Director of Admissions
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 focusing 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.
Marina Babakoff
Director of Arts and Cultural Partnerships
Marina Babakoff is the visionary founder of the art program at Smith Street Maternelle, where she has been an art teacher since its inception. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from L’École Nationale Supérieure d’Art de Cergy-Paris and a degree from Le Studio National des Arts Contemporains, Le Fresnoy.
Before transitioning to the world of children’s art education, Marina worked extensively in sound production, creating major programs for France’s national public radio. Her passion for fostering creativity in young minds brought her to New York, where she realized her vision of developing innovative art programs for children.
Elena Melman
Operations Manager
Born in the Carpathian Mountains of Russia to parents who communicated in 3 different languages (Russian, Hungarian and Yiddish) Elena has had a love for language since birth. She has encouraged her two sons to enjoy a love of languages by enrolling them in the dual language French program at PS58 when they were in elementary school. Elena joined Smith Street in 2022 and has enjoyed furthering her knowledge of French while keeping the three campuses of the school running smoothly. Elena came to Smith Street Maternelle after an extensive career in film and television and as an instructor at the Juilliard School’s drama division for nearly two decades. She is a graduate of The New School and of Parsons School of Design.