Board Members

Haluk Balkan
President | TAA-AZ

Born and raised in Lüleburgaz, Haluk was an AFS exchange student (’82 returnee) before attending the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara. Haluk received both his undergraduate and Master’s Degrees in Mechanical Engineering. During graduate school, Haluk was the Academic Advisor of the International Youth Club (UGT), host of the very first spring festival (bahar şenliği) at METU. Haluk received his doctorate degree in Mechanical Engineering, from the University of Arizona in Tucson, where he was the founding president of the Turkish Student Association (TSA). Once in Phoenix, Haluk became an active participant of the TAA-AZ. While hosting story time for Turkish children, Haluk was an active member of the Turkish Folk Dance group (TDA), and was co-instructor of the children’s folk dance group for several years.

During graduate school, Haluk worked for PSE in Tucson. Before joining Intel Corporation in 2005, Haluk was the Vice President of Engineering at FCI in Tempe Arizona.

Haluk is married to Şule Balkan and they have two children (Baran and Dilara). Haluk has been living in Arizona for a little over two decades.

Oya Oner
Treasurer | TAA-AZ

Oya has been an Arizona resident for almost ten years. She received her undergraduate degree in Business Management from Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara. Her master degree was in Finance from Istanbul University. Oya was previously involved in TAA-AZ as the auditor. She loves travels, photography, watercolor painting and good food:) She is married and has one daughter.

Burcu Kaftanoglu
Secretary | TAA-AZ

Burcu was born and raised in Adana until she moved to Arizona with her family. She received both her undergraduate and master’s degree in Tourism Management from ASU. Burcu is now pursuing her doctoral degree in Community Resources and Development from ASU. She has been volunteering for TAA-AZ since she moved here and now serving as the secretary of TAA-AZ and social coordinator of Turkish Student Association (TUSA). She has been involved at TUSA since 2007 as social coordinator, vice president and president. She is also a proud member and an active dancer of Turkish Folk Dance group since it was formed in 2008.

Nevin Altunyurt
t3az-circle Coordinator | TAA-AZ

Nevin was born and raised in Ankara before she left her beloved hometown to complete her graduate studies in the US. She received for B.S. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department of Middle East Technical University in 2005, followed by M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. After being a resident of Georgia for 5 years, she moved to Arizona in May 2010 to join Intel Corporation. She believes in the power of giving back to the community, and she is thrilled to work with TAA-AZ’s amazing people sharing the same excitement.

Kanad Korgan
Board Member | TAA-AZ

Born and raised in Ankara, Kanad has been living in Phoenix since moving to Arizona in 1984 with her daughter. She had previously lived in the United States for eight years in the Washington D.C. area where her brother and his family still reside. She has been working at Arizona State University as an Appeals Officer for the past 21 years. Kanad has served as the Secretary of TAA-AZ under various previous Executive Boards; worked with Turkish students and TUSA@ASU; has served as staff advisor of the Turkish Dance Association (as well as dancing in the folklor group), and was a founding member of Bosphorus Art Project which organized Turkish film festivals in the valley. She enjoys the lifelong friendships developed through giving community service to the Turkish community.

Mustafa Gökçe Baydoğan
President | TUSA@ASU

Born in Malatya as the first child of Perihan and Mehmet Baydogan, Mustafa was raised in three different cities, Malatya, Tatvan (Bitlis) and Ankara. He was a student of Ataturk Anatolian High School before attending the Department of Industrial Engineering of Middle East Technical University (METU). Mustafa received both undergraduate and graduate degrees from the same department. During his graduate study, he worked as a teaching and research assistant.

He is currently pursuing his PhD degree in Industrial Engineering in School of Computing, Informatics and Decision Systems Engineering at Arizona State University (ASU). Mustafa is the current president of Turkish Student Association (TUSA) at ASU. He has been living in Arizona for two years.