Ullman, in fact, is personal manager for Klein, an author and globe-trotting motivational speaker who Thursday will kick-off a Women's Empowerment Lecture series by the YWCA of Maricopa County.
A holocaust survivor, Klein in 1958 authored the best-selling autobiography, All But My Life, which became an Oscar-winning documentary film, One Survivor Remembers. A former newspaper columnist in New York , she's written several other books and for more than 50 years has used her story to educate on tolerance and helping those in need.
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For the YWCA event Klein, who makes hundreds of speeches a year, plans to talk about the impact other women have had on her life.
She might consider starting with Ullman, the Amanda Peet lookalike who is also her granddaughter.
For a year and a half, Ullman has worked at scheduling, marketing, writing and helping prepare projects for her grandmother's continuous road show through America's schools and corporate conferences.
Ullman also travels with Klein on the road at a pace that would challenge an NBA player. In a recent typical week, the two women, both Scottsdale residents, attended seven events in five days.
Klein lured Ullman from an unrewarding marketing job in Washington. She'd heard her grandmother speak throughout her life, so she knew the job wouldn't be making cookies and knitting, as her friends feared. But there were some surprises.
"Audiences treat her like a rock star. They cry and ask if they can touch her," said Ullman, who has now acclimated to being in the company of the awestricken. Now her friends say she should be selling "Gerda 2007 Tour" T-shirts.
The adulation places her in the role of a policeman.
"Gerda wants people to have the opportunity to take pictures and talk. She's sociable and wants to entertain-who does that at that age? I know when she's exhausted and needs a nap, but she keeps talking with them. They hug her, touch her, use their camera phones," Ullman said, describing the post-show scene.
"I don't want to be the bad person-especially if they've driven a couple of hours to get there, but I have to be," she said.
The one thing Klein doesn't do is use a computer.
"Alysa is in the 21st century. I'm still in the 19th century. I always wanted to live in Queen Victoria's time, but with penicillin," said Klein. Alysa takes after her grandfather, Klein's late husband Kurt, who used to manage the work.
"She's very organized like him. When I write, I used to ask Kurt about spelling; now I ask Alysa. Of course I'm still overcoming that she is my baby granddaughter," said Klein.
Ullman hasn't gotten over her grandmother. She's heard her speak hundreds of time and still hears something new. What changes each time are the issues for each audience, whether its drugs, gangs, racism or poverty.
"She challenges them. She tells them they are messengers to a time she won't see. She's one of the youngest Holocaust survivors; they are her messengers," said Ullman.
Klein kids that her granddaughter must have a mission too. She suggests Ullman write a book like John Steinbeck's Travels With Charley, a volume of journal-writing named for the Nobel winner's dog. "I'm Charley," said Klein.
Ullman is keeping a journal.
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