Meet the speakers at the June 2022 virtual Summit.
Erin Shaw Hernandez
Owner of Larchmere Language Services
Erin Shaw Hernandez
Erin Shaw Hernandez is an experienced TESOL professional with expertise ranging from teaching in the classroom to owning and operating an accredited language school. She received a MA TESOL degree from Brigham Young University, and has extensive experience in curriculum and program development, teacher training, language assessment and program marketing. She currently teaches and offers private consulting for language teachers and programs through her company Larchmere Language Services: https://larchmerelanguages.com/
Ian Wright
Director of BridgeUniverse
Ian Wright
Ian Wright is the inaugural director of BridgeUniverse, Bridge Education Group’s media, research, and news division. Wright spearheads efforts to fill the gap in the understanding of trends and opportunities in the rapidly growing English Language Teaching (ELT) industry. He brings over 20 years of education industry knowledge, university leadership, and consulting experience in international education and student enrollment management, including as Director of International Admissions at Long Island University – Post, Director of Partnerships at World Education Services (WES), and as University Relations Manager for Prodigy Finance.
Rachel Story
Freelance Online English Teacher, Founder of Grateful Gypsies Blog
Rachel Story
Rachel Story is a nomadic ESL teacher originally from Tennessee. In 2010, she moved to China to begin teaching ESL. For five years, she taught at a variety of schools and training centers in Beijing and Kunming. In 2016, she began teaching English online with VIPKid and traveling full-time. Since then, she has been teaching, traveling, and living around the world with her husband Sasha. Together they document their travels and teach others how to become traveling teachers on their blog, Grateful Gypsies.
Anna Hearrell
Director of Operations at Bridge
Anna Hearrell
Anna Hearrell is Bridge’s Director of Operations. She has developed innovative online programs designed to meet the needs of English language teachers around the world, including a Micro-credential course dedicated to Teaching English as a Global Language. As a teacher training provider, Bridge seeks to empower the global English language teaching community with accessible professional development options, teacher recognition, and advocacy.
Krzl Light Nuñes
Online English Teacher and Digital Nomad
Krzl Light Nuñes
Krzl Light Nuñes is an independent online English teacher from the Philippines currently living in Chile. She has a BA in Journalism and worked in television as a writer before deciding to explore the world. She began her English teaching career in 2014 in Santiago and later established her own freelance ESL business, specializing in teaching English online. In addition to teaching, she writes articles about teaching English for various publications. Krzl is also an avid surfer and enjoys traveling South America in search of the perfect wave.
Alice Copello
Tutor Development Lead at Preply
Alice Copello
Alice Copello has been in the foreign language teaching industry for 12 years, taking on various positions as an English language teacher, teacher trainer, director of studies and coursebook writer. She has a BA and an MA in TEFL/TESOL as well as a CELTA and a DELTA, and she is passionate about everything related to language learning and teaching. She specialises in teaching exam preparation, as well as working professionals and general language teaching to adults.
Karina Zew
Tutor at Bridge
Karina Zew
Karina Zew lived most of her childhood in the U.S., but moved to Argentina as a teenager. She has a master's degree in psychology and has been involved in the education field for many years. Karina’s career began nearly 30 years ago, when she taught Business English classes at international companies, and during that time she also taught general English to young learners. She has also shared her knowledge in the field of English teaching as a speaker at TEFL/TESOL conferences. Karina joined Bridge in 2003 at our center in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Mark Lee
Owner of Mark English School
Mark Lee
Mark Lee A facilities management professional with more than 28 years experience working in various countries overseas including the Middle East and Asia. Has managed extensive diverse workforces in remote and hostile environments in such fields as mining/oil & gas/military/healthcare and retail. A passionate believer in the development of local communities and empowerment thereof. Always a people person, an approach that has successfully transitioned into the teaching of English for local children in China for the past four years.
Colette Hosten
Online English Tutor at Engoo
Colette Hosten
Colette Hosten has over ten years’ experience in the field of education. She has worked in curriculum development, quality assurance, and has taught both children and adult professionals. She moved to Japan in 2016 to teach English as a foreign language and fell in love with the intersection of language and culture. She now teaches English online from her home country in the Caribbean. Colette has a BA in English and an MA in Rhetoric and Communication Design, and has completed 220 hours of Bridge TEFL/TESOL certification.
Linda Evans
Career Coach
Linda Evans
Linda Evans is a Certified Strengths-Based Career Coach who helps people with career changes, job searches, and professional satisfaction using a unique combination of coaching, counseling, and consulting. She started her virtual career coaching business, Launched by Linda, in 2011 and has worked in higher education for 10 years at 5 universities. Linda is currently a Co-Associate Editor for the National Career Development Association's online magazine, Career Convergence. She enjoys writing about career development and speaking in webinars, panels, and podcasts. Linda has a B.A. in American Studies and minor in Ballroom Dance from Brigham Young University, and a M.A. in Psychological Counseling from Columbia University. She resides in San Antonio, Texas with her husband and daughter.
Lydia Michailow
Independent Online ESL Teacher / Writing & Resume Coach
Lydia Michailow
Lydia Michailow is an independent online teacher and resume expert from the United States. After receiving the CELTA certificate, Lydia moved to Spain, where she has been teaching English for the past nine years. She started teaching for online ESL companies when the pandemic hit and soon after began teaching online independently. She currently works in a school in Spain while teaching private students online and doing freelance work for online companies including editing resumes and helping international students apply to college in the U.S. Apart from having taught hundreds of students both in-person and online, Lydia leads a Facebook community of 2.6K independent teachers and helps other teachers create eye-catching resumes to impress future private students or land competitive jobs.
Alyse Bukoski, M.A., M.Ed., CAGS
Online Teacher and Consultant at Next Steps Teaching/ ESL Diversified
Alyse Bukoski, M.A., M.Ed., CAGS
Alyse Bukoski is a veteran online ESL, ELA, and Spanish teacher. She is an Adjunct Professor at Beijing Normal University, a teacher for online companies in China and the USA, and an independent teacher. She is the co-admin of the Facebook group ESL Diversified and operates Next Steps Teaching, a consulting business that supports those interested in teaching online or reinventing themselves as online teachers in an ever-changing industry. For more information contact: nextstepsteaching@gmail.com.
Chris Rush
Head of Community for Off2Class
Chris Rush
Chris Rush is the Head of Community for Off2Class and is responsible for leading all aspects of its direct-to-consumer sales strategy. Over the last five years, Chris built one of the most passionate product-focused teacher communities on the web (10k+ active members). He leads sales to a broad spectrum of teachers in more than 120 countries, ranging from solo teacher entrepreneurs and online schools, to global NGOs and private international schools. Whatever the client, when it comes to direct-to-consumer sales at Off2Class, Chris ensures that teachers occupy the driver’s seat.
Zoe Smith
CEO at BE School
Zoe Smith
Zoe Smith Founded BE School in 2015 envisioning a different approach to teaching Business English. Zoe's background in teaching and coaching moved the focus away from learning grammar and towards empowering students of all levels with more confidence while doing business globally. Zoe and her team work with corporate professionals across Mexico and LatAm to enhance their business communication skills.
Anzhela Karamysheva
Independent Online English Teacher and Digital Nomad
Anzhela Karamysheva
Anzhela Karamysheva Originally from Russia, but consider herself an international person, a digital nomad.
She’s been traveling for the past 12 years.
She earned her master’s degree in tourism and hospitality at the Saint Petersburg State University of Technology and Design.
Then she started to travel with different types of contracts beginning at 19 years old. She’s tried many different jobs depending on which country she traveled to. Animation, entertainment, tourism, and the restaurant business. The purpose was always- traveling. Her passion. Her way of living.
Covid came and it clipped her wings and earnings. She suffered from inner drama thinking how to change her life and quickly realized she’s proficient in the English language which came to her naturally during her travels.
She enrolled herself for a second diploma at the Bridge education group and graduated with a TEFL/TESOL international diploma along with taking additional courses.
That’s how her story began.
Minji Xu
Business Owner, ImproveYourBookings.com
Minji Xu
Minji Xu has extensive experience working with business management consulting firms and edu-tech companies. She has an MBA degree from the University of Cambridge and a master's degree in Education Technology from the University of British Columbia. Her website improveyourbookings.com empowers teachers with business skills via courses and coaching services.
Ruth Nabaasa
Business English Instructor at BridgeEnglish Chile
Ruth Nabaasa
Ruth Nabaasa has been an English Language teacher for over 9 years. She has a passion for helping learners communicate fluently in English and has worked with learners of different ages and nationalities including Ugandans, Chinese, Koreans, Chileans, Venezuelans, Brazilians and Ukrainians.
She first began teaching English in 2012 to young adults in a vocational Institute in Uganda, after which she moved to Nairobi to serve as a missionary with OMF International for close to 4 years. During that time, she was running English corners for Chinese adults in teashops and homes, while at the same teaching beginner Mandarin and culture to Africans as a way to connect two different cultures.
Prior to moving, Ruth had done the IDELTOnline in 2015, and later, the specialized Teaching Business English Certificate in 2016, with the vision of teaching Chinese business men and women in the marketplace.
Later, in order to gain more experience and exposure, she started to work online as a Business English Instructor with BridgeEnglish based in Santiago Chile since the COVID-19 Pandemic prevented further travel. Ruth has since then been teaching highly motivated adult learners (one of the perks of working with Business English students) from different companies and backgrounds. She enjoys working with her adult learners and hopes to one day travel to and live in Santiago Chile. When she’s not teaching, Ruth works with her Sunday school learners at One Life International in Kampala. She also loves to travel and cook food from different parts of the globe.
Jack Lingshuang Mao
Operations and Media Manager at Bridge Education Group
Jack Lingshuang Mao
Growing up in China, Jack Mao’s interest in languages was sparked by his grandfather, a translator, who taught him English and Japanese. While Jack’s undergraduate studies were in mathematics and philosophy, he later went on to earn master’s degrees in Japanese studies and linguistics from the University of Colorado, where he researched using computational methods to model phonetical patterns of speech. Jack has been teaching Chinese, Japanese, English, and linguistics for nearly 10 years and is the Operations and Media Manager for BridgeUniverse, the news and media arm of Bridge. Jack is currently getting certified as an English-Mandarin medical interpreter.
Jake Young
Founder and Materials Creator, Fluentize
Jake Young
Jake Young is a certified EFL instructor with over nine years of teaching experience in his own private teaching practice in Prague, with a specialized focus on General English, Business English, and conversational English. He is also a “teacherpreneur” and founder of Fluentize, an online resource creating modern and engaging ESL lesson plans based on real-world videos for English language teachers with teenage or adult students. Fluentize was born out of Jake’s frequent use of authentic videos with his own private student clientele in Prague, resulting in him developing his own video-based learning materials and spinning it off into a platform for other teachers to use and enjoy.
Natalia Bustos
Director of Marketing, Sales and Customer Service at BridgeEnglish LATAM
Natalia Bustos
Natalia Bustos is Director of Marketing, Sales and Customer Service at BridgeEnglish LATAM. She is an English Teacher and has a degree in Public Relations but most of her experience has been related to support and guide companies in the development of their language training plans and the improvement of language learning experiences for adult professionals at BridgeEnglish.
Joshua Sohn
English Language Instructor at PKL Services
Joshua Sohn
Joshua Sohn has taught English as a foreign language internationally for 11 years, 6 years in South Korea and 5 years in Saudi Arabia. After graduating college with a B.A. in English he obtained a TEFL certificate and moved to South Korea to teach children K-8 reading, writing, and speaking. Wanting to advance his career he got a M.Ed. in Curriculum and Design for ESL and received a US teaching license. With those credentials he was able to find a position in Saudi Arabia teaching advanced English communication skills to officers and soldiers in various military programs. Since then, Joshua has taken Bridge professional development courses to improve his teaching ESL online skills.
Donald Moen
Professor at Language Institute at the Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology
Donald Moen
Donald Moen is a professor in the Language Institute at the Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology in Ottawa, Canada, and President of TESL Canada. He holds degrees from The University of Western Ontario (Ed.D.), University of Calgary (M.Ed.), University of Alberta (M.A.), and the University of Victoria (B.A.). He has taught in various parts of Canada, China and South Korea. His research interests include Intercultural Communication, Educational Technology, Online Education, and Educational Leadership.
Cheryl Evans Lym
Certified Business English Teacher at BridgeEnglish Chile
Cheryl Evans Lym
Cheryl Evans Lym is a Business English teacher who is MBA qualified and has more than 20 years of experience working in the corporate environment of large multinational companies in the airline, telecommunication, food distribution and pharmaceutical industries. 8 of those years she spent leading, training, coaching, and developing sales and marketing teams. Cheryl soon discovered her passion for teaching adults and helping them to achieve their best potential in their roles. Fast forward to 2020, she became a certified TEFL instructor. During the first year she became a tutor volunteer with Paper Airplanes, for Middle East refugee students, and also joined the BridgeEnglish Chile team. She teaches professionals with the company, and privately. In 2021 this lover of learning completed the BridgeEnglish Business English certificate course and believe that new knowledge, has really sharpened her skills and creativity in the virtual classroom. Cheryl is passionate about the success of her students in the workplace and on their personal journey to be fluent and confident. A phenomenal day at work for her is a student sharing that they gained a promotion or pitched a winning presentation. She relishes those moments, and it keeps her motivated and energized knowing her work and efforts has impact.
Gerald Nikolai Smith
BridgeUniverse Journalist
Gerald Nikolai Smith
Gerald Nikolai Smith is an EL teacher and journalist. He's written about the online EL job market, tutor marketplaces and native speakerism. In 2021, he graduated from Stirling University with an MSc in International Journalism. Originally from Texas, he now lives in Glasgow.
Hamid Darabi
Founder and CEO of Demiks
Hamid Darabi
Hamid Darabi is the founder and CEO of Demiks, an EdTech company based in Tiohtià:ke, commonly known as Montreal, providing technology to language schools and teachers. With more than 15 years of experience building software for the education ecosystem, Hamid is passionate about languages and learning. Demiks strives to bridge cultural divides through language learning.
Alex Asher
CEO, LearnCube
Alex Asher
Alex Asher is the CEO of LearnCube, the award-winning virtual classroom software made for language teaching & tutoring. Working with customers in over 1,000 cities and 90 countries, including Preply and Babbel, Alex has a unique, international perspective on the future of language education. He is also giving back to the education sector with two current initiatives: the "Get More Students" podcast, focused on education marketing, and co-authorship of the upcoming book, "LangTech."
Tara Benwell
VP of Publishing at Ellii
Tara Benwell
Tara Benwell is the VP of Publishing at Ellii. She manages the publishing team, which is made up of writers, editors, artists, designers, and assistants. Tara has been working with Ellii (formerly ESL Library) for 16 years, first as head writer and later as the company’s social media manager. During her career with Ellii, Tara, a former ESL teacher, has written and revised hundreds of materials in a variety of sections, including her two favorites: Discussion Starters and Phonics Stories. Tara lives in Windsor, Ontario.
Lucas Young
Program Coordinator at JET Program USA
Lucas Young
Lucas Young graduated in 2013 from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, majoring in psychology and minoring in Japanese and also attaining a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certificate. He gained interest in learning Japanese after becoming best friends with many exchange students, many of whom were from Japan. After graduating, he gained employment through the JET Program and taught English from 2013-2015 in Gunma, Japan. He continued teaching from 2015-2020 with the Chiba-Wisconsin Program in Chiba, Japan. Lucas finally returned to America in September 2020 and has since been working as a JET Program Coordinator at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, DC.
Carlos Pizarro
Director of BridgeEnglish LATAM
Carlos Pizarro
Carlos Pizarro is a professional with a background in Literature, Education, Philosophy, and Educational Management, a relevant experience in the ELT industry, especially in the corporate training sector.
With more than 20 years in Bridge Education Group, he has had different responsibilities as a teacher, head teacher, and director in the language center in Argentina and later in Chile.
In the last two years, he has been one of the leaders of the digital transformation of BridgeEnglish into an EdTech with online services throughout the LATAM region, with a team of hundreds of teachers from 35 countries. He is responsible for the areas of Operations, Finance, HR, and Academics.
Theodore Alberola
Digital Marketing Specialist, Bridge Education Group
Theodore Alberola
Theodore Alberola is a digital marketing specialist at Bridge Education Group, an institution dedicated to training teachers and students of English as a foreign language. Previously, Theodore worked as an independent web developer and as an intern for a import/export company based out of São Paulo, Brazil. He has a Bachelor’s in advertising (FAAP) and technical degree in python and JS web development.
Mishelle Kehoe
English Teacher, Cumorah Academy
Mishelle Kehoe
Mishelle Kehoe is a TESOL MA student at Brigham Young University. She is currently doing an English teaching internship in the Czech Republic at Cumorah Academy. Prior to moving to Europe, she was teaching English at BYU’s English Language Center, an intensive English program for students from all over the world. She is interested in researching pronunciation, teacher education, and communicative language teaching. Mishelle is passionate about preparing future ESL educators and equipping them with the tools and experience they need to become effective teachers in the field.
Tim Duncan
Academic Director for Worldwide English Services
Tim Duncan
Tim Duncan is Academic Director for Worldwide English Services and has 15 years’ experience of Business English teaching, academic management and ELT recruitment. Amongst others, he has worked for International House, The British Council and The London School of English. As an independent consultant, he recently completed a three-year competency mapping, training needs analysis, program development and teacher recruitment project for 34,000 employees covering 2,200 job roles. He has recruited for full-time, part-time, face to face and online positions. Tim is based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Elena Stolboushkina
ESL Teacher, Teacher-Entrepreneur
Elena Stolboushkina
Elena Stolboushkina is a passionate and qualified teacher of English as a Second Language with 23 years of teaching experience, during the last 6 years of which she has been teaching only online via Skype. She has taught both large classes and individuals from young children to grannies, and from beginners to advanced levels. She has prepared students for a range of international exams, including IGCSE ESL CAIE, IELTS, PET, FCE, and others. Elena is not just a teacher of English for her students, she is also their supporter, mentor, motivator, and also a coach, who trains their ability to think and analyze first of all, and she also teaches them to organize their time, because she believes that discipline is a key for success. She helps her students find their strengths and interests with the help of English, be successful and achieve their potential.
Jason R Levine
Fluency MC, Teacher-Trainer-Knowledge Entertainer
Jason R Levine
Jason R Levine is an English teacher, trainer, and materials writer. He has led student workshops and teacher training programs in twenty-two countries around the world based on the songs and videos he creates as Fluency MC. Originally from the United States, Jason currently lives in Paris, France. He has published materials with Oxford University Press and Editions Didier and works as an English Specialist with the U.S. Department of State.
