Galina Cherny was born and raised in the capital of Soviet Ukraine—Kiev (now Kyiv). In 1979, she emigrated to the United States as a Jewish refugee with her husband and their three-year-old son. Galina was twenty-six.
She began her professional journey in Los Angeles, where the family settled upon arrival. Starting as a simple clerk with very limited English proficiency, she later became a computer programmer and ultimately ascended to technology executive leadership and later became a transformational leadership coach, founding her own boutique firm, The Cherny Group.
Galina is a gracious hostess who loves bringing people together in her home in Encino, California, where she lives with her husband, John. Galina and John enjoy travel, dancing, and the outdoors. But most of all, they love spending time with their two sons and their families. They have four grandchildren, who are the light of their lives.
Galina is a passionate storyteller whose childhood dream of becoming a writer materialized with her memoir, Last Train to Freedom.
Last Train To Freedom
Galina Cherny’s Last Train to Freedom is the riveting true story of her young family’s daring escape from the barbed wire borders of the USSR. It’s a raw tale of growing up in the Soviet Union. And a love story that defies all odds.
Born into a patriotic military family, her existence was constrained by the dull daily grind of the post-Stalin era, magnified by the fact that she was Jewish. Could a chance encounter in her beloved hometown Kiev, capital of then-Soviet Ukraine, change everything for the 21-year-old Galina? Is she willing to walk away from her life and never return? Betray her parents? Her country? The choice proves much harder than she ever imagined.
Through Galina, we learn of her family’s harrowing emigrant journey. The struggles, setbacks, and triumphs of starting life over in a foreign land. Will she ever be at home again?