Dr. Edward J. Lazzarini is a retired Academic Specialist at Indiana University, where he contributed extensively to Volga-Ural, Siberian, and Crimean studies. He served as Academic Specialist in the Central Eurasian Studies Department, Adjunct Professor in the Department of History, and was affiliated with the Russian and East European Institute, the East Asian Studies Center, and the Islamic Studies Program. He also directed the Sinor Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies and the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center, and coordinated the Volga-Kama Initiative, supporting scholarship and resources on Central Eurasian and Uralic cultures.

Dr. Gulshat Safiullina, a native Kazan Tatar, is a linguist and educator dedicated to preserving and promoting the Tatar language and culture. She holds a PhD in Comparative Linguistics and multiple degrees in language teaching and Tatar studies. She is the author of the English-Tatar Dictionary for Learners and co-author of a Tatar-English/English-Tatar dictionary published by the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan. She has taught Russian and Tatar language courses at Indiana University since 2016, and she served as Tatar Language Manager for the Oxford Global Languages Program (2017–2020).

Amber Kennedy Kent is an language educator and pedagogy specialist with expertise in second language acquisition and instructional design. She is the Assistant Director of Language Education and Pedagogy for CeLCAR at Indiana University, where she oversees the design and development of language learning materials for less commonly taught languages from the Central Asian region. She is also the host of the educational podcast On the Silkroad with CeLCAR and is co-author of Designing Effective Language Learning Materials for Less Commonly Taught Languages, Tibetan: An Elementary Textbook, and Turkmen: An Elementary Textbook.