Laura Wilhelm

PhD SLL 1994

The Fate of the Fable in Modern Russian Literature. Defended 1994 (Chair: Joseph L. Conrad). Instructor, advanced ESL for Russian and other emigrants at LA ORT; private language tutor, inter-cultural consultant. She currently works for the City of West Hollywood with Russian and Ukrainian immigrants. She was named Employee of the Quarter for January-March 1997 and in July 1999 the City Council gave her a commendation in recognition of her work with the emigre community and the organizations Women for Women (centered upon relief efforts in former Yugoslavia) and SERRV International. She is now recording secretary for the Russian Advisory Board of West Hollywood Municipal Employees, where she has been employed since 1996. She has recently published "Pornography and the Politics of Oppression in Russian Aesopian Tradition" in Eros and Pornography in Russian Literature (Moscow: Ladomir, 1999). Her husband, Chris, is working towards his Ph.D. at UCLA Indo-European Studies program. (12/2001)

Career: Founder/Principal at LauraWil Intercultural, a full-spectrum business development company that breaks barriers to success for speakers of English and Russian. Current clients include Dvorsky College Preparatory School and United Independent Taxi. Columnist for WEHONEWS.COM (“Global Lessons in Good Citizenship”). Member of the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. Advisor to the Professional Business Network. Candidate for Board of Directors for the Los Angeles-St. Petersburg Sister City Committee. Recent listings in Cambridge WHO'S WHO among Executives, Professionals and Entrepreneurs and USA Honor Society.

Languages: Attic Greek, Croatian, English, French, Italian, Old Church Slavic, Russian.

Countries lived: USA—have visited Canada, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Russia, and Scotland for business and pleasure.

Favorite place: All of the above!

Favorite food: California Continental

Favorite drink: Anything with ice

Favorite Saying: Fortes fortuna adiuvat (“Fortune favors the bold”—ancient Latin proverb)

Favorite book: Difficult to choose, but if I had to: Irving Stone's biography of Michelangelo, The Agony and the Ecstasy has become a personal hero tale

Hobbies: All things Shakespeare, architecture, athletics, beach bumming, concerts, cruises, Disneyland, domestic and foreign travel, exploring LA, fashion, interior design, Intenet surfing, language study, mentoring, Metro hopping, minimalist gourmet cooking, movies, museums, restaurant dining, Russian ballet and opera, spa treatments, Universal Studios, voracious reading, writing.