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Since 2010, Özlem Ece has been serving as the Director of Cultural Policies Studies at Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV). She completed her undergraduate degree in French Public Administration at Marmara University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, and her master’s degree in Cultural Project Management at L’Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Grenoble in France with a scholarship from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 2003 to 2008, she worked as a project manager and communication consultant in leading cultural institutions in Turkey, participating in local, national, and international projects. In 2008, she became the general coordinator of the “Turkish Season in France” organised under the patronage of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Culture of Turkey and France at İKSV. Ece is also a member of the Executive Board of the UNESCO Turkish National Commission and Chair of the Cultural Diversity Experts Committee, and she serves on the Executive Board of the Marmara Urban Forum (MARUF) organised by the Union of Marmara Municipalities.
ozlem.ece@iksv.org
Project Manager, Dr. H. Selen Akçalı, completed her undergraduate degree in French Public Administration at Marmara University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences. She received her master’s degree from the Department of International Relations and Politics at Boğaziçi University. She completed her Ph.D. in Modern Turkish History at the Atatürk Institute of Boğaziçi University, and wrote her dissertation on “Political Propaganda in the Single Party Era”. She currently teaches courses on the history of the Republic of Turkey as a lecturer at Boğaziçi University.
As a founding partner of SOM Research, Selen has been providing project planning, collaboration development, and project financial and administrative management services for civil society, universities, the private sector, SMEs, and industry in the field of grant programs financed by the EU since 2004. Since 2010, Selen has focused on culture, art, and rights-based projects, and has organised many exhibitions and events ranging from photography to contemporary dance, theatre to industrial design in collaboration with various cultural and art institutions both domestically and abroad.
selen.akcali@iksv.org
Ayberk, who graduated from the Business Department of Istanbul Bahçeşehir University and is currently studying in the Cultural Management Master’s Program at Bilgi University, started his career in the Civil Society field by working in the Greenpeace Face-to-Face Resource Development Project. After holding team leadership and coaching positions in UNICEF’s resource development program’s founding team, he returned to Greenpeace, where he volunteered and became the Venue Coordinator. In 2014, he left Greenpeace and became the Project Manager for the Child Labor project run by the Life Support Association. In the following years, he held positions as Project & Community Center Manager in Humanitarian Aid Organizations that offer various services to refugees under the umbrella of Kızılay, Asam, and Mudem, and then started working as the Projects Coordinator at the IZ Association for Individual and Community Mental Health (One Trace) at the beginning of 2020. After leading the Ortaklaşa Project, We Leave a Trace, Digital Trace projects and YanYana Turkey Everywhere project funded by DIHAA, he continues to work as the Sub-grant Coordinator in the Ortaklaşa Project created and run by the Cultural Policy Studies Department of Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), which he joined in 2022.
Neslihan graduated from the Stage and Performing Arts Management Department of Istanbul Bilgi University. Since starting to work as a youth worker and project manager in the Civil Society field in 2003, she has worked as a trainer, organisation and community coordinator, mentor, and committee manager in civil society organisations. Between 2012-2015, she worked in theatre and art workshops and as an artist assistant. She worked on strategic planning, program design/implementation, and data-based advocacy with local governments and NGOs. Between 2015-2019, she gave courses on digital data and activism, civil society, and volunteerism at Istanbul Bilgi University while working as the Program and Grant Coordinator at the Bernard Van Leer Foundation.
After completing his undergraduate education in the Department of Science Education at Boğaziçi University, he received his master’s degree from the Human Rights Law program at Istanbul Bilgi University. Since the day he started university, he has worked with children and young people in village schools, boarding schools, or under tree shades, carrying out activities based on science, art, and sports. Since 2014, he has been working with non-governmental organisations, conducting independent research, and recently, he has been trying to bring together a documentary film with his ethnographic research. While writing his master’s thesis, he became a board member of the Zero Discrimination Association, and volunteered at Boğaziçi University Ayvalık Schools, where work is carried out with children with limited access to social opportunities after the Soma mine disaster.
After completing his undergraduate education in French Public Administration at Marmara University, Berk continued his Political Science master’s degree at Galatasaray University. He worked on corporate communication and media communication in the private sector and joined the IKSV Media Relations team in 2017, where he communicated the foundation’s events in various disciplines. He is currently the communication coordinator of the Ortaklaşa: Culture, Dialogue and Support project.
Emre was born in Istanbul in 1992. He completed his undergraduate degree in Urban and Regional Planning at Yıldız Technical University (2011-15) and his master’s degree in Urban Design (2016-19) at the same university. He wrote his master’s thesis on the relationship between biomimicry (imitation of nature) and urban design. After starting his career working in exhibitions and art events in the cultural sector, he continued at the İKSV Sales and Business Development department. He also worked freelance in the cultural sector in Antalya. He was a member of the event management team at Biletix. Currently, he is an event coordinator for the “Ortaklaşa” project team at İKSV Cultural Policy Studies department.
Kadir was born in Bartın in 1991. He completed his undergraduate education in Finance at Uludağ University (2009-2013) and his graduate education in Accounting and Auditing at Istanbul University (2017-2018). He started working in the İKSV Financial Affairs Department in 2012 and served in various positions in the department until the end of 2022. He obtained the Certified Public Accountant licence in 2018 and is currently registered with the Istanbul Chamber of Certified Public Accountants. He now serves as the financial coordinator in the “Ortaklaşa” project team of the İKSV Cultural Policies Studies department.
Kadir was born in Bulgaria in 1983. He completed his undergraduate education in Electrical/Electronics at Uludağ University (2003-2007). He started working as a system administrator in the İKSV Information Technologies Department in 2010. He now serves as the technical support coordinator in the “Ortaklaşa” project team of the İKSV Cultural Policies Studies department.
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