Elena has been an academic and a language specialist throughout her working life. She was appointed as a university lecturer in Russia soon after graduating and taught at the University of Tomsk for 11 years. She relocated to London to join JP Morgan, a major investment bank, where she  worked as part of a team of advisers to the governments of Russia and other states of the former Soviet Union. In 2000 Elena joined the Diplomatic Service Language Department at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London. At the Foreign Office she was Head of Russian and Eastern European languages and was in charge of the language training of all FCO officers posted to Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union. Elena specialised in teaching translation, liaison interpreting, political, legal and economic Russian to diplomats. She now works as Language Director for the Russian and Czech Department at the University of Bristol. Elena is also a moderator for the Diploma in Translation at the Chartered Institute of Linguists and an external examiner for Russian at King's College London. 

Elena’s academic interests include applied linguistics, translation theory and practice and the development of innovative language teaching techniques. Her interactive electronic textbooks Economic Russian and Getting on with Political Russian are widely used by diplomats studying Russian throughout the world. She has also published translations, including the translation of the critically acclaimed film 336 Rivers (1999) written and directed by the international artist João Penalva.

In 2012 Elena won the University of Bristol E-learnng Award for her innovative contribution to teaching translation. Elena created the Russian-English part of the the pioneering distance learning MA in Translation programme and wrote and delivered conference presentations on blended learning and developing transferable employability skills in teaching final-year students of Russian at conferences on national and international levels.