Elena Croddy was born and raised in Russia, and has lived in Philadelphia since 1992.  She graduated from Irkutsk State Linguistic University with Master's in Applied Linguistics majoring in English and German.  She taught Russian language and culture at the Wharton School for business professionals and at the University of Pennsylvania.  Using the training she received in linguistics and second language acquisition, she wants to share her knowledge of the Russian language and culture.