Leslie Levine Adler, PhD began her college career at Wellesley College. Finding herself unsuitable for cloistered Ivy League life, she transferred to the University of Michigan to major in Russian Area Studies. In the summer of 1976, she attended a program in Leningrad, supposedly studying at Leningrad State University, but learning far more in Vera’s home. A promise is a promise, so Leslie returned to visit Vera the following summer, during which time she was detained in Moscow for five days, but that is another story.

Following many exciting career paths including baker, copy boy at the Minneapolis Star, and Kelly Girl, she returned to study for her Masters in Teaching English as a Second Language. In this way, she attained her life goal of being paid to go abroad, which included teaching in Paris, Scotland, and China. Finally, she got tired competing for jobs with her best friends and still was searching for the answer to the question: “why was the Soviet Union so strange?” As she taught Russian emigrés advanced skills, she realized their perceived language deficit was really about acculturation issues. Pursuing cross-cultural studies led her to Clinical Psychology. To her amazement, she earned her doctorate and every day feels grateful to work with her clients. She developed a course in cross-cultural psychology and taught other courses at Hamline University. She is a trained consultant in EMDR, an effective trauma treatment which you may research at your leisure.  She established her own clinical practice in 1993 and talks about retiring someday soon.  We'll see.

Leslie is married to Harry Adler, who used to be more famous than her. He still has greater psychological insight than her.  Leslie's children are way too far away.  Isaac and wife, Claire, live in Brooklyn. Maya fled to New Zealand in 2016, where she discovered a sane society, but is missed daily.  This has left Leslie and Harry with their two devoted Corgies,Steve! and Tobias, and Maya's cat, Sushi.  .