Who We Are
Bi-Lingual International Assistant Services is a non-profit organization that offers services to elderly & disabled Americans, as well as “New Americans”, in a culturally and linguistically accessible manner. We are cultural brokers providing services with deep understanding and appreciation for consumers’ cultural backgrounds and individual life experiences.
Julia Ostropolsky, LCSW
Julia came to the United States of America as a 17year old refugee from former USSR. She lived with her family in Toledo Ohio, often serving the role of interpreter for her parents and grandparents who knew no English at the time.
Julia graduated from Toledo University with BA in Psychology and Communication and once again joined her family, who by that time had moved to St. Louis MO in search of employment. As a student of Washington University School of Social Work she became aware of the many needs of Russian – speaking elderly and disabled. Local Jewish Family and Children Services offered Julia a practicum and later – a position of a social worker, thus enabling the program of outreach to the Russian-speaking community to begin.
Before founding Bi-Lingual International Assistant Services, Julia Ostropolsky worked
as a Qualified Mental Retardation Specialist, Service Coordinator, and Mental Health
Social Worker, but - since becoming involved with the Russian-speaking community
- has put all her efforts into helping the elderly and disabled in need. All
of her experiences proved valuable in delivering services to the New Americans.
Julia Ostropolsky, LCSW is now a president and CEO of Bi-Lingual International Assistant
Services, a nonprofit organization offering counseling and case management to American
born and Bosnian-, Russian –, Spanish-, Kurdish- and Chinese – speaking
New American elderly and disabled. Recently the agency began working with
African – American clients due to heightened need for services in the North
St. Louis City area. Bi-Lingual International Assistant Services has over
490 clients and has assisted over 600 individuals in the past year alone. It is
DMH certified; a contractual provider with Division of Senior Services, and Regional
Center. It is also a provider under Saint Louis Area Agency on Aging and is
funded by Mental Health Board of Saint Louis, Missouri Foundation for Health, Jewish
Fund, and Parkview Foundation. Bi-Lingual International Assistant Services
is also an interpreting agency, and Julia has been an active advocate for using
professional qualified interpreters in all professional service delivery settings.
Julia is a speaker at many conferences and training seminars and is a member of
Missouri Public Health Association, Refugee Immigrant Consortium, Minority Advocacy
Coalition, Minority Eastern Region Health Alliance, Breakthrough Coalition, and
University City Senior Service Board.
Recently, the agency had been subcontracted for State of Missouri funded program
on Assisting elderly and disabled in obtaining Citizenship and Medicare benefits.
Jane Edgar
Jane is currently working with Bi-Lingual International Assistant Service (B.I.A.S.) in the capacity of a full-time MSW. As you know this is an exciting and busy position. I have been traveling all over St. Louis city, North County and South County providing the elderly and disabled with social work and mental health services, often times referring them to agencies like yours. I look forward to working with your agency more closely. I graduated from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in August 2007 with a Master?s in Social Work after receiving a Bachelor?s degree at the same university with a major in Psychology, with a minor in Sociology. Directly after graduation I took six months to work part time and care for my grandson. What an education! While this was more fun than anything else, he moved to Alabama and I began my work at B.I.A.S. Every day at B.I.A.S. is filled with new and meaningful experiences. I am excited to be part of B.I.A.S. their scope of services and heart for each and every client is reflective of the truly worthwhile non-profit service agency that they are.
Molly Bartholomew
Molly recently finished her first year in the Master?s in Social Work (MSW) program at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. During undergrad, she studied anthropology and French at Lawrence University, a small liberal arts school in Appleton, Wisconsin. In her junior year of college, she participated in a study abroad program in Dakar, Senegal. This rewarding experience led her to later volunteer at a social service agency in Lomé, Togo, which assisted HIV/AIDS patients, HIV/AIDS orphans, street children, and social welfare cases. She is excited to be working with diverse clientele at BIAS and is gaining a broad range of skills by being involved in citizenship tutoring, case management, quality assurance, and working on grant writing and creating a comprehensive interpreter database.
Davorka Marovic-Johnson, LC Psychotherapist
Davorka Marovic-Johnson is a bi-lingual licensed psychotherapist. She specializes in trauma counseling for refugee populations who come from war affected areas and primarily suffer from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
Ms. Marovic-Johnson graduated from University of Missouri in 2001 with a Masters Degree in Community Counseling. She has over 12 years of counseling experience in related fields.
Ms. Marovic-Johnson works and lives in St. Louis, Missouri, which currently holds one of the largest populations of Bosnian refugees in the country. Other refugee clients include Afghans, Palestinians, Vietnamese, Albanians, Croatians and Serbians.
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