DÜNYA Organization

Principal Officers

		Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol
		President
		Mehmet came to United States in the year of 1993 when he won a scholarship to Berklee College of Music. In 1997, he founded the band AudioFact and toured Mexico, Argentina, the USA and Europe. The same year, he received Berklee College of Music's Clare Fischer Award and completed his degree in Jazz Composition and Film Scoring. In the beginning of 1998 he released the CD "Black Spot" with AudioFact. In the year 2000 he graduated from New England Conservatory of Music with a Master's Degree in Jazz Composition. In the year 2003 Mr. Sanlikol has released the second CD entitled "Asitane", with AudioFact and has taught in the theory and music history departments of New England Conservatory. In the year 2004 Mehmet completed his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Composition at the New England Conservatory. Mr. Sanlikol has performed and toured with AudioFact, and Jazz stars such as Tiger Okoshi and Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez at numerous prestigious International Music Festivals, the Blue Note Jazz club in New York, Ryles Jazz club in Boston. Recently, he is writing a book about the organization and the music of the Ottoman Janissary Bands and is teaching at Emerson College and Tufts University. For more information on Mr. Sanlikol please visit his personal website.

		Robert Labaree
		Vice President
		Robert Labaree is an ethnomusicologist specializing in Turkish music and medieval European music. As a founding member of the EurAsia Ensemble since 1980, he has performed and taught Turkish classical music across the U.S. His recordings with EurAsia Ensemble include Eski Dunya ile Sohbet (Conversations with the Old World), Istanbul on the Charles, and Boston Sema. His solo CD Cengnagme appeared in Turkey in 2001 on the Kalan label. He is the director of NEC's Intercultural Institute, which he founded in 1993.

		Serap Kantarcı Sanlıkol
		Development
		Serap Kantarci got her B. A. degree in International Relations and American Literature from Bilkent University in 1994. In the year 1997 she got her Master's degree in Public Administration from Ankara University Political Science Department (Mulkiye). Between the years of 1994 and 1997 she also worked as a political consultant in the Turkish Parliament and served on the International Affairs committee. She came to Boston in 1998 and got full scholarship in order to pursue her studies further at Suffolk University's Political Science department. She got her second Master's degree from Suffolk in 2000. During her studies Serap worked as a legislative intern at the Massachusetts State Senate. Starting in the year 2000 Serap started working at Harvard Business School as the Executive Education Program Coordinator. In the year 2001 she got a full scholarship from Northeastern University and she started doing her Ph.D. in Law and Public Policy. Currently Serap is teaching Public Policy and Sociology courses at Tufts University and working as a Project Coordinator at Harvard University. In addition, she has been a Turkish Instructor at MIT since 2000, teaching language and grammar courses to adult classes in Orhan Gunduz Memorial School at MIT.

		Serpil Kantarcı
		Public Relations
		Serpil completed Istanbul University School of Pharmacy in 2001 and following her graduation she moved to Boston to pursue her scientific studies at Harvard University. She recently graduated with a Master’s degree from Harvard University School of Public Health. Serpil has been working on developing new communication channels for Dunya.

		Krysia Bereday Burnham
		Public Relations Consultant
		After spending a decade in the magazine publishing industry in New York, Krysia Bereday Burnham moved to Istanbul with her husband Steve. Over the next eleven years, she worked at The Istanbul Guide magazine (Editor-in-chief), Cornucopia magazine (contributor), and Koc and Bogazici Universities (Instructor). In between having three children (two of who were born in Turkey), Ms. Burnham began writing about Turkish culture. Her essays are collected in Everywhere As Blue, which is awaiting agency representation and publication. Ms. Burnham is pleased to combine her interest in Turkey with a passion for religion and its role in world peace (she is now a candidate for the Masters in Divinity degree at Andower Newton Theological School). About the Dunya organization, she says: "It is critical at this time in history to find the right voice-or note-to begin a conversation that stretches across, and punctures, cultural barriers, misconceptions, and resistance to change. Dunya has that voice, and plays those notes, and in so doing, not only educates and entertains, but also fosters global compassion in a way that only music can."

		Aylin Özsancak, MD
		Event Coordinator
		Aylin has completed her studies at the Medical School in Hacettepe University, Ankara in the year of 2000. She finished her residency in Pulmonary Medicine at Baskent University, Ankara in 2005. Currently she is a research fellow at Tufts-New England Medical Center.