Lisa Velazquez/Cross-Cultural Trainer and Coach

Gruess Gott!
My name is Lisa Velazquez, geborene Schlechter. I grew up in Koessen/Tirol, near Kitzbuehel. As long as I can remember I wanted to live in different countries and that's just what I did after I finished my schooling in Austria.
I started my journey by working for Siemens in Munich and Johannesburg, South Africa. Moving on, I worked for the Austrian Foreign Ministry at the Austrian Embassies in Bucharest, Romania, Athens, Greece and Washington D.C.
While working at the Austrian Embassy in Washington, D.C. I met my Puerto Rican husband Heino and in 1984 we settled in Connecticut raising our two boys as bilinguals, in German and English. To make sure our boys feel connected to their extended families we visited regularly in Austria and Puerto Rico. They are now young adults and greatly appreciate being bilingual and multicultural. They feel very close to their cousins, aunts and uncles and grandparents in Koessen. A few days in Koessen and they sound like Einheimische!
I now help individuals and families adjust to life in a new country by sharing my own insights and by giving them practical tools to fully embrace their cross-cultural experience. I publish a free monthly e-newsletter “Building Cultural Awareness”.
I also help parents who want to raise their children with more than one language and give them the information they need to keep bilingualism going in their family.
Auf Wiedersehen und viel Glueck in Amerika!
Lisa Velazquez
lisa@lisavel.com
http://www.lisavel.com