Elena Suslov

Department Head, Language Arts

Elena is a lover of literature and languages, so it is no surprise she studied English at the University of Utah, earning a BA degree.  While already a bit intrepid by nature, opening herself to travel in high school and college planted a lifelong seed if not obsession with traveling.  After college, Elena began her teaching career a bit inadvertently, getting a job teaching ESL in Taiwan, a decision largely motivated by her desire to see the world.  She went on to teach ESL in Spain as well, and to travel of course!  Being immersed in other cultures led Elena to study sociocultural anthropology at graduate level at Columbia University in New York.  Elena began teaching in earnest in the US in 2014 in New York City, before relocating back to Salt Lake to be closer to family and continuing teaching in Utah, first at Challenger School, and then at Elizabeth Academy.  

Other than reading and traveling, Elena loves to have conversations, to cook and host dinner parties, and to do all the usual Utah things such as ski and hike.  She is trilingual in English, Russian, and Spanish, with a current strong attempt at a fourth: Italian. 

Secondary School Staff

Hear From Our Community

I especially appreciate the school’s focus on the whole child, which includes social skills development, in vivo problem-solving, community and service experiences, the arts, and practical living skills among so many other things! Most importantly, our children LOVE their school and literally gush about it anytime someone asks them.

Words cannot express the respect and gratitude I have for Elizabeth Academy. Our children’s experience (six years thus far) at both schools has been outstanding.

Our girls have attended Elizabeth Academy for six years now, and we can’t imagine sending them anywhere else for school. The individual attention and caring, collaborative environment at EA have been so good for both of them and we love the holistic Montessori approach to education. We also greatly appreciate all the efforts of the administration and teachers to provide our girls the ability to go to school safely during the pandemic. It has been a lifesaver for our family.