Academic Staff

Asst. Prof. Dr. Bahar Gün received her BA in ELT from the Education Faculty, Anadolu University in 1989; her MA from the MA TEFL Program at Bilkent University in 1991, and her PhD in ELT from Anadolu University in 1998. She is in charge of in-service teacher training and teacher development programs at SFL. Her research interests include EFL teacher education in general, and teacher cognition and reflective teaching and learning in particular.

Working at Izmir University of Economics, School of Foreign Languages since 2008, Nesrin Oruç Ertürk has earned her PhD degree from Anadolu University in 2007, assigned as an Assoc. Prof. Dr. in 2014 and appointed as Prof. Dr. in 2019. She has worked as the Undergraduate English Program Coordinator between 2011 and 2015. In 2003, she got a one-year Fulbright Scholarship to work as a Foreign Language Teaching Assistant at the State University of New York (SUNY), at Binghamton, New York, USA. Between 2005 and 2008 she worked at Dokuz Eylül University, Buca Faculty of Education, English Language Teaching Department. Since 2015, she has been assigned as the director of the EKOSEM (İzmir University of Economics, Continuing Education Center) and is a member of the Executive Board of TUSEM (Türkiye Sürekli Eğitim Merkezleri Konseyi). Teaching as an adjunct Professor for University of Maryland since 2008, Prof. Oruç Ertürk has taught many hybrid and live stream classes. She has certificates from University of Maryland University College on WebTycho Online Teaching (2009), TESOL Online Professional Development Program “The Basics of Online Instruction” and “Advance Course of Online Teaching” (2001). She is among the Academic delegate of Turkish Educational Sciences Journal (2008), Member of Editorial Board of Journal of International Social Research (2010), and Member of Board of Reviewers of Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language Journal (TESL-EJ) since 2011. She has articles published in both national and international journals and has attended numerous conferences.

She received her BA degree in ELT from Anadolu Üniversity in 1991. In 1995, she completed her MA at Bilkent University. She received her PhD in ELT from Anadolu University in 1999. Since 2003, she has been working at İzmir University of Economics, School of Foreign Languages.

Nil Akpınar-Wilsing graduated from Middle East Technical University, the Department of English Language Teaching in 1995. Between 1995 and 2000, she worked as an English Language Instructor at Bilkent University. She attended Language, Vocabulary, and Curriculum and Testing training programs and she holds COTE (Certificate for Overseas Teachers of English-Cambridge University) and CEELT (Cambridge Examination in English for Language Teachers) certificates. She also carried out some special duties like the Specialist Teacher (responsible for curriculum and testing issues) and the Deputy Head of a Teaching Unit in this institution. Between 2000 and 2003, she did her MA on Curriculum and Instruction at METU in the Department of Educational Sciences and worked as a research assistant. In the same institution, she received the Multiple Intelligences Institute for Curriculum Design and Lesson Plan Development certificate. She has been working at Izmir University of Economics since 2003. She is currently a senior instructor and Material Writer in the Freshman English Language program.

Anıl Uçak graduated from Hacettepe University, Faculty of Letters, the Department of English Language and Literature in 1998. She received her teaching certificate authorized by Ministry of National Education from Ege University. She has been working at Izmir University of Economics, School of Foreign Languages since 2005.

Çiğdem Stevens received her high school education at Ozel Turk College in Izmir, Turkey. She then went on to the English Department at 9th September University to receive her Bachelor's degree in education.She began her teaching career at the school from which she graduated, Ozel Turk College, where she was a teacher of English from 1982 to 1984. She was then hired by the United States Army to instruct newly arrived American military personnel in Basic Turkish.After employment with the United States Army, she accompanied her husband to the United States until she returned to Turkey in 1989. She then became a teacher of English at Ozel Fatih College in Izmir. During her period as a teacher there, she enrolled as a student at the University of Maryland where she is pursuing yet a second degree, this time in Business Management.When the Izmir Advanced Education Institute opened up university study in affiliation with Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1996, she was chosen to be on the founding faculty. She remained there until 2001 when she joined our fine institution to again be part of the founding faculty of an educational institute of university level. She has taken workshops and seminars to keep her skills current and up to date. She got a certificate that allows her to teach Turkish as a second language, increasing her value to the university. She currently teaches Freshman English and Turkish as a second language to foreign students.

Donald Staub is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the School of Foreign Languages at Izmir University of Economics in Izmir, Turkey. He also served for four years as the coordinator of the Quality Assurance Unit within the School of Foreign Languages at Isik University (Istanbul), where he served as the chair for the SFL’s two accreditation applications. Donald has a doctorate in Educational Leadership from Eastern Michigan University (EMU), and an MA (TESOL) and BA (Literature) from Michigan State University. Dr. Staub is a trained CEA reviewer and has significant accreditation experience in working with institutions that have been accredited by NCA, SACS, and CAEP. His primary research interests lie in EFL quality assurance, student retention, and delivery of English medium instruction, and he has recent book chapters on quality assurance in EFL programs as well as quality assurance in ESP programs. He is currently editing a book (Springer, 2019) that explores quality assurance and accreditation in foreign language programs.

Asst. Prof. Esin Caglayan graduated from Bogazici University, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language Teaching. After graduation she worked in several schools as an English Language teacher and head of department. She joined Izmir University of Economics, School of Foreign Languages in 2002. She worked as a Level Coordinator between 2003 and 2009, as Head of Testing Unit between 2009 and 2014 and as the Head of Preparatory Programs between 2015-2020. She obtained her Teacher Trainer Certificate from British Council in 2006. She received her MA degree in Educational Administration and Supervision from Dokuz Eylul University in 2008 and her Ph.D. degree in the same program in 2014. Asst. Prof. Esin Caglayan has been working at Izmir University of Economics as Director of Teaching and Learning Center Research and Application Center (EKOEĞİTİM-TLC) since 2015. Her academic interests are assessment and evaluation, educational technologies, instructional design, learning analytics and organizational behavior.

Arzu Yabacı, graduated from Konya Selçuk University,Department of English Langugage Teaching. After completing her trainee year working both in Safranbolu Lisesi and Safranbolu Kız Meslek Lisesi between 1992-1994, she went to England to attend Wimbledon School of English and received the Cambridge University FCE Certificate. In the1995-1996 academic year, she worked as the Head of English Department and as an English Teacher in Aydın Özel Başak Lisesi. Between 1996-1999 she worked at İzmir Özel Çamlaraltı College and İzmir Özel Ege Lisesi. During this period, she also taught at 9 Eylül University-Finance Management evening courses. In 1997, she attended Hammersmith&West London College, Faculty of English Studies-A course for Overseas Teachers of English and she obtained a certificate. In 2000, she obtained her Teacher Training Certificate and DipELT at the British Council. In 2002, she went to Canada-Vancouver and attended a TOEFL course on academic writing at Worldwide Langugage Institute and received a certificate. On her return, she started working at Izmir University of Economics and since 2006 she has been teaching Academic Skills in English courses in the Freshman Programme.

Assc. Prof. Dr. Evrim Üstünlüoğlu received her BA in ELT from the Education Faculty, Dokuz Eylül University in 1983; her MA from the MA TEFL Program at Bilkent University in 1992, and her PhD in Educational Sciences from Marmara University in 1998. She was promoted as an associate professor in the field of educational sciences, program development. She worked as a Director of School of Foreign Languages (SFL) between the years 0f 2004-2018. Currently, she has been conducting her research, and teaching as a faculty member. Her research interests include methodology, program development and EFL teacher education in general.

After having graduated from Ege University English Language and Literature, Menekse Gokcen has had a chance to complete her education in post-graduate studies of Dokuz Eylul University American Culture and Literature. She has worked at Ege University School of Foreign Languages and Dokuz Eylul University English Language Education Department. She has been working at Izmir University of Economics since 2018 and she is currently studying for her Ph.D. degree in English Language and Literature at Ege University.

TEFL / TESL Certificate, Diploma and Advanced Diploma. Lyndon Merrett’s main academic education is in the area of Electronics & Micro-Computer Systems Design, and was employed from 1977 until mid 2001 in various Design Engineering and Management roles within the Military and Commercial Electronics sectors. Prior to arriving in Turkey, he obtained the TEFL / TESL Certificate, Diploma and Advanced Diploma enabling him to teach English as a Foreign / Second Language. His first few years in Turkey were spent teaching the English Language to students at Preparatory and Undergraduate levels within the English Language and Literature Department of Istanbul Kültür University. While there, he also taught instructors studying for their Masters’ Degree within the same department. He commenced employment at Izmir University of Economics in September 2004 initially employed as an English Language Preparatory Instructor, for the last several years he has been teaching Freshman Academic Skills, has been responsible for Blackboard System activities related to the Freshman program and, throughout the pandemic (2020-2022) was ENG101 and ENG102 Course Coordinator.

Anita Afacan graduated from the University of Sussex with an undergraduate degree in Environmental Science. After completing a CELTA course, she taught general and technical English at Anadolu and Osmangazi Universities in Eskişehir. She then went into the English preparatory school at Anadolu University where she taught for a further four years. She obtained an MA TEFL degree from the University of Reading, England in 2003. During her time there, she also taught academic English to post graduate level overseas students. She joined Izmir Economy University in 2003. She is a senior lecturer, material writer and teacher trainer in the undergraduate English department.

Kelci is the current course coordinator for ENG 410. She started her career as an English teacher in Peru in 2015, before moving to Turkey and working at a university. She has taught all age groups and levels, and moved to a private language institution in 2018. She became a teacher trainer in 2020 and has worked on almost 15 CELTA courses, with candidates and students from around the world. She became certified as an online English teacher and trainer in early 2020. She completed all three modules of her Delta, and is interested in material development, language education for teachers, and learner autonomy.

Secil UGUR studied English Language Teaching at Middle East Technical University between 1993 and 1998. From 1998 to 2002, she worked as an English Language Instructor at the School of Foreign Languages at Baskent University. She attended Language, Vocabulary, and Methodology training programs there. Meanwhile, she received her MBA degree from Baskent University in 2001. Then, she started working as an English Instructor at Izmir University of Economics in 2003. Until 2009, she taught English at the Preparatory School. In 2009, she joined the Freshman Program where she taught Academic Skills in English until June, 2015. From 2012 to 2015 she taught Advanced English for TOEFL Exam Preparation. From 2006 to 2010, she worked at the Vocational School where she taught various courses such as Introduction to Business, Principles of Marketing, Marketing Management, Managing People and Organizations, Fundamentals of E-commerce, Applications in Foreign Trade and Pricing. She also designed courses like "English for International Trade" and "Business Talk" with her partners and taught them at the Izmir Chamber of Commerce between 2006 and 2013. She worked as the Head of Graduate English Preparatory Program at the School of Foreign Languages from 2015 to 2019. as of 2019 - 2020 Academic Year, she joined the Freshman Program of School of Foreign Languages to reach Academic English.

Simon Mumford graduated from Oxford Brookes University in 1983. He was awarded the RSA Certificate in TEFL in 1985. He has taught at various English Language courses and a private secondary school in Izmir, Turkey. He taught on the Ege University English preparatory course from 1997 to 2003. In 2004, he graduated from the Aston University (UK) Msc.TESOL programme. He has taught at Izmir University of Economics since 2003. He teaches academic skills courses ENG 101 and 102. He is also Writing Centre advisor, which involves editing the papers of faculty staff. He is currently doing a PhD in ELT at Bahçeşehir University, and is writing a thesis on the teaching of academic writing. He has published academic articles on teacher education, language testing and academic English.

Bahar Kızıltunalı received her Bachelor's degree in English Language and Literature from the Aegean University in 1982. She then started her teaching career at Ozel Fatih College, where she remained until 1996.During that time, she also furthered her own education with numerous courses resulting in an impressive list of certificates from Cambridge University, Sidmouth International School, the British Council, and the University of California. In 1996, she was chosen to be part of the founding faculty and also head of the English Department of the Izmir Advanced Education Institute University Study Programme in affiliation with Fairleigh Dickinson University. In 2000, she became the head of English and consultant for the Atolye Consultancy and Organization. She remained there until 2001, when she joined Izmir University of Economics, again as a part of the founding faculty. Bahar worked as Head of the Preparatory School for 13 years.She was responsible for the overall management of the school’s academic program. Since joining the university, she has continued to take part in many conferences and course in order to develop her experience and knowledge in the field of ELT. She has also undertaken training in Total Quality Management and Quality Inspection and qualified Quality Inspector for City and Guilds. Bahar has traveled extensively and has spent a lot of time in both the UK and the USA. She has been invited to take part in conferences and focus groups at many prestigious universities, including Oxford and Cambridge in the UK and the University of California in the USA. She was also invited by British Council Brazil to give seminars and trainings on testing and management in four different cities, 6 different institutes . She has worked closely with leading experts in the field of ELT and has a wide range of contacts within the world of ELT both in Turkey and abroad. One of her particular areas of expertise is testing.She has developed testing programmes for different institutions and she has also worked closely with many respected experts in this field. She holds a Diploma in ELT Management.