Editorial Advisory Board

Current Role-International Educator; Teacher Arizona, USA

Hannah Landers Organ graduated with a Master’s in Teaching English as a Second Language from Northern Arizona University and with a Master’s in Secondary Education from the University of Arizona. For the past 11 years, she has been an educator in the United States, China, and Uzbekistan. Hannah has taught ESL education throughout Central Asia and higher education. Hannah brings a wealth of English Second Language expertise, knowledge, and experience to the Language Bridge Academic Journal Advisory Board.

Joshua Tilton works in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan as an English Language Fellow with the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. In 2021, Joshua was awarded the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Taraz, Kazakhstan.

Joshua is the former Managing Editor of the Pinch Literary Journal, and has hosted workshops at AWP and TESOL International. He attained his Master’s of Fine Arts Degree at the University of Memphis, practicing poetry.

Feruz Akobirov, PhD is an English Language Program Specialist at the U.S. Embassy, Tashkent. He obtained his Doctoral Degree in Educational Technology from the University of Kansas, USA, earned his M.A. and B.A. in English Language and Linguistics from Bukhara State University, Uzbekistan and his other B.A. Degree in Journalism from the University of Mysore, India.

Feruz has 16 years of teaching English language at Bukhara State University, and he is alumnus of the U.S. Embassy’s Fulbright FLTA Program. During his Fulbright tenure he taught Uzbek language and culture at Arizona State University during 2007-2008. He has been working at the Embassy since 2019.

Dr. Guli Ergasheva is the Dean of the English First Faculty at the Uzbekistan State World Languages University (UzSWLU). She earned her Doctor of Science (DSc) degree from London Metropolitan University and her PhD in Philological Sciences from the National University of Uzbekistan. Her research primarily focuses on gender terminology across languages, applied linguistics, translation studies, and experimental phonetics.

A recognized leader in academia and gender studies, Dr. Ergasheva served as the National Consultant on Gender Terminology for UNDP and the Women’s Committee of Uzbekistan, contributing to the development of the country’s first official electronic glossary of gender-related terms. Under her leadership, UzSWLU achieved its first inclusion in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings in 2023.

Dr. Ergasheva has authored over 80 scholarly publications, including monographs, textbooks, and peer-reviewed journal articles indexed in international databases such as Scopus. She is an active member of the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) and KADEM (Women and Democracy Association, Turkey). Her recent projects include leading initiatives in STEM engagement for women and developing NLP-based Uzbek-English translation models.

In recognition of her outstanding academic and leadership contributions, Dr. Ergasheva received the national “Woman of the Year – Most Initiative Woman” award in 2022 and the prestigious “Shuhrat” Medal from the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan in 2024.

Email: [email protected]

Feruza Masharipova has 25 years of teaching and classroom research experience teaching and coordinating English language learning for U.S.-funded Access program and serving on the faculty of a major university in Uzbekistan. She works as Associate Professor at Urgench State University in the Foreign Philology faculty teaching “Integrated Skills”, “Methodology of Teaching Foreign Languages”, and “Lesson planning” to Year- II, Year- III, and Year- IV students.

She cascades training developed by American Council’s English Speaking Nation project to both pre-service and in-service teachers (Khorezm RPMs). Feruza is the Urgench Access Microscholarship Program coordinator for the Khorezm region and serves as the Regional Alumni Representative (RAR) for the US Embassy. She mentors new teachers stemming from her previous teaching experience and training.

Feruza participated in the Fulbright Visiting Scholar 2013 program and the JFDP in 2008 program. She conducted research at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (UNL) and California State University, Fullerton (CSUF). Feruza has been a leader in advancing the quality of English language instruction throughout Khorezm, Uzbekistan and can draw on her strong network of EL colleagues in other regions of Uzbekistan.