Leila Levinson

A graduate of Vassar College, Leila Levinson has a MA in English from Indiana University and a JD and MSW from the University of Texas at Austin. During her 17 years of teaching literature and writing at St. Edward’s University, she researched and wrote Gated Grief: The Daughter of a GI Concentration Camp Liberator Discovers a Legacy of Trauma,, the project taking her to the National Archives; Germany, and homes of seventy liberators and their families.

Gated Grief received the 2011 President's Award from the Military Writers Society of America, the 2012 May Sarton Memoir Award, and was a finalist for the 2013 Texas Book Award. Levinson has appeared on CNN, and her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Austin American Statesman, The Texas Observer, WWII Quarterly, and War, Literature, and Art.

What she learned about the multigenerational consequences of trauma led her to become a psychotherapist, specializing in trauma and attachment injuries.

Audrey Thompson

Audrey Thompson is an international leadership coach with 25+ years’ experience with individuals, teams and organizations that achieve cultural change, business objectives and talent development. 

Audrey’s mother, Dr. Edith Eger, is the author of  The Gift, a New York Times bestseller, chronicling Dr. Eger’s experiences, as well as the wisdom that grew from them.

Audrey and Leila will be offering a book club discussion based on The Gift.  

Edith Eger

A native of Hungary, Edith Eva Eger was just a teenager in 1944 when she experienced one of the worst evils the human race has ever known. As a Jew living in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, she and her family were sent to Auschwitz, the heinous death camp. Her parents were sent to the gas chambers, but Edith’s bravery kept her and her sister alive. In 1949, she moved to the United States. In 1969 she received her degree in Psychology from the University of Texas, El Paso. She then pursued her doctoral internship at the William Beaumont Army Medical Center at Fort Bliss, Texas. Dr. Eger is a prolific author and a member of several professional associations. She has a clinical practice in La Jolla, California and holds a faculty appointment at the University of California, San Diego. She has appeared on numerous television programs including CNN and the Oprah Winfrey Show; and was the primary subject of a holocaust documentary that appeared on Dutch National Television.