Natalia Pavlovna Kalishman

Natalia Kalishman was born in Novorossiisk, Russia, in the former Soviet Union. She attended Kuban State University in Krasnodar, where she obtained a master’s degree in English/French and world literatures, as well as a registered nurse degree in 1976. That same year she married an American in Russia, and moved to the United States in 1977. Natalia received her next master’s degree in English from the University of Florida in 1981. She worked as a graduate assistant and later as a lecturer in the UF Russian department until 1983, when she enrolled in the UF College of Law. She received her Juris Doctorate in 1986. In 1990 she took a position as assistant state attorney for the 8th Judicial Circuit. Since 1992 has been engaged in the private practice of family and immigration law, and is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). As a founder and director of the Gainesville/Novorossiisk Sister City Program, Natalia has led numerous delegations to the Soviet Union, and has hosted dozens of groups from Russia and other former Soviet republics, both through the sister cities program and as part of the U.S. Congress’ Open World program. Having grown up in the Soviet Union, and then living in the United States, Natalia has personal knowledge and a unique perspective of both political, economic and legal systems.