Alison Fleischer
Director
Alison Fleischer, a native of New York, moved to Indiana in 2013. A graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, she received a B.A. in French and Business. As an undergrad, Ali had the incredible opportunity to spend an entire year living in Paris, where she went to the International School of Business for a semester and then interned for a French company. It was through that experience that she began to understand the challenges of language learners living within a different culture.
After college, Ali and her husband started a screen printing and promotional products company on Long Island, which they owned and managed for several years. Ali served on various boards and committees in NY at her synagogue and the Suffolk Y Jewish Community Center. In 2010, she decided to go back to school and received a Masters in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of other Languages). At this point, she was introduced to the socio-economic barriers that exist for so many of our immigrants. Upon graduation, Ali worked in a Title I school and learned that there is so much more to teaching English than grammar and punctuation. Building relationships is the key to language acquisition and success for immigrant children and their families.
Currently, Ali teaches English as a New Language at Nora Elementary School in Washington Twp, Indianapolis. As a member of the ENL team, in addition to teaching and building relationships with the English language students at Nora, she hosts and facilitates parent meetings with the immigrant communities where they discuss both school and immigration issues. She has coordinated school-wide/family events, met with apartment managers as a liaison to help create better housing situations for immigrant families in the Nora community, and met with families in their homes.
Ali is active in the Indianapolis Jewish Community. She and her family are members of Congregation Beth-El Zedeck, where she has served on the Board of Directors for five years. She is on the Jewish Education and Learning Committee of the JFGI (Jewish Federation of Greater Indianapolis). Ali enjoys participating in community wide events sponsored by both Beth-El Zedeck and JFGI including Adopt-a-Family and The Birthday Club, a women’s philanthropy program that helps ease the financial burden of children’s birthday celebrations for families in need.
Ali and her husband, Jim have been married for nearly 25 years. They try to instill the Jewish value of tikkun olam, repairing the world, with their three children, Ethan (19), Spencer (16) and Madi (13). As a family, they enjoy traveling, exercise, sporting events and playing with their dog, (Derek) Jeter.