Multilingual Minnesota, Inc. was created in 2009 by Max and Patsy Vinogradov.  Max and Patsy are a husband and wife team who live in a northwest suburb of Minneapolis.  While they’ve collaborated on a number of projects since they met in 1994, most of them have concerned home improvement and child rearing…  This is the first time they have found a way to combine their seemingly unrelated professional interests.

Patsy is a language teacher and teacher educator.  She is an adjunct faculty member at Hamline University, in the School of Education where she teaches professional development courses for English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers.  She also is the Executive Assistant for MinneTESOL, the statewide professional organization for ESL teachers.  Her undergraduate studies focused on Russian language, and she has an MA in ESL.  She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction in the Department of Second Language and Cultures at the University of Minnesota. She is American; she speaks Russian and tries to speak French.

Patsy is responsible for the “content” side of www.multilingualminnesota.org.

Max is a multi-media artist and owns his own creative agency, Vilah Creative (www.vilahcreative.com).  He has degrees in mechanical engineering and graphic design.  Max’s agency helps clients to develop their visual identity and to focus their marketing strategy.  He was born in Russia and came to the U.S. in 1995. Max created the design and handles the technical side of www.multilingualminnesota.org.

Patsy and Max and their two children speak Russian at home, and they are trying hard to follow their own advice on bilingual parenting. :)