A major milestone in my career was receiving the Fulbright FLTA scholarship in 2011, which allowed me to teach Turkish language and culture at the University of Utah. I later taught Turkish at Arizona State University (2015-2019) and Indiana University (2019-2024), where I was honored with the “Excellence in Teaching” award.

I hold a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Middle East Technical University. Building on my dissertation research, I developed a European Union-funded project, which received a grant of €400,000 and is coordinated out of Spain. Running until 2026, this project focuses on integrating mobile games into traditional classroom environments, and I work on this alongside my team at GRIT. My research interests are centered around educational technology and innovative teaching practices.

Outside of academia, I am deeply committed to civil rights, particularly disability rights, and have been involved in numerous initiatives to raise awareness. I share my personal story of overcoming physical disability due to a spinal cord injury on my website and social media, having also represented the cause as a running ambassador for the Wings of Life World Run and as a TEDx speaker. Since my accident, my biggest passion has become swimming, with a personal dream to one day swim across the Bosphorus.

Within GRIT, I wear many hats: project administration, research, content creation, proposal writing, coordination of communication and dissemination activities, data analysis, consultancy, event coordination, social media, curriculum design, translation, and more. I am excited to continue growing this list with each new project and initiative we take on at GRIT.