Influential Woman · Attorney Speaker Author
Virginia Prodan
Podcast Host, Virginia Prodan, LLC
Dallas, TX
Her Story
About Virginia
I graduated from law school in Romania in 1977, and from that time on, I have been in the field. I grew up in socialist and communist Romania, and the lack of freedom shaped my mission. As a Christian, I believe God gave me the mission to defend those who cannot defend themselves, and I did that in Romania. I was exposed to interrogation, arrested, tortured, and placed under house arrest. My cases became part of United Nations reports on human rights violations and United States reports on human rights violations, which meant I exposed the dictator to the world, and for that reason, he wanted to kill me. But by the grace of God, President Ronald Reagan intervened to give me and my family special immigration status as a political refugee from Romania to America, offering the dictator the possibility to have renewed most favored nation status if he allowed us to come to America. When I came to America in 1988, I didn't know one word in English. I went back to law school, so I have a law degree from Romania and a law degree from the United States from SMU Law School here in Dallas. I opened my law firm, wrote my memoir Saving My Assassin published by Tyndale House Publisher, and raised my three kids - two daughters and a son. My first daughter graduated from SMU like me, my second daughter from Harvard Law School, and my son from United States Air Force Academy. Now I speak in many places, write articles, and train and empower people to live a courageous life full of freedom and to create a legacy for generations to come. I am an allied attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, and I do the same thing like I did in Romania - defend persecuted Christians. I help anyone who wants to build a business and they are fearful of circumstances, and I encourage them and train them how to do it. I also encourage people in different situations with kids and relationships. I speak not only in America but all over the world, and I enjoy it very much because I see lives being changed. Every day I try to learn new things - for example, a few years ago I developed a podcast, and I have over 410 episodes with people like Dr. Ben Carson and Jim Daly from Focus on the Family, as well as single moms and homeschooling parents, because I believe they have an important role.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Virginia
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to God's purpose in my life and the amazing work ethic He built in me through hardship. If you read my book, Saving My Assassin, you'll find out about my childhood, and lots of people will say your childhood was worse than Cinderella, and I agree with them. But I always tell them, God has a purpose. He did not create those horrible circumstances in my life, but He allowed those circumstances. And now, looking back, I can see He built in me amazing work ethics that helped me, not only in Romania, but here in America, to rebuild my life, to build my business and my company. That's the way God works - every single hardship in our life is for a purpose. We don't like it, but when we look back, we realize, wow, that was amazing. I was trained to overcome circumstances, and God wants me to share and enrich people's lives so they can overcome circumstances, build a career, build a business, build a relationship.
02What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The most important value to me is responding to hate with love and truth, not hate. I teach people to understand that we do not have enemies - we just have people doing negative things because they are in the tent of the evil one. I give people the example of how the assassin came in my office in Romania and put a gun on my face and said, I'm here to kill you. I was terrified, I thought I'm gonna die. I was shaking. I am under 5 feet tall, and he was 6'10 feet tall with a gun at my face. But still, I heard from the Lord saying, share the gospel. I shared the gospel with him, and he accepted Christ - a miracle of a man who was transformed from killing me to be my brother in Christ. The best thing that I can do is to convince people not to respond to hate with hate. I'm not saying to put yourself in a harmful situation, but to try to do the extra mile to love people for who they are and what they can become, because you responded to them in love and truth. That's the greatest achievement you can see - miracles, and you know, all the other things like increase in your career path, or more money, or everything, it's temporary. But to see someone being transformed, and for the rest of their life to do the same thing - that's what we are called to do. We are called to do impossible things, and God is doing those through us.
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