Özlem Ece

Özlem Ece has been serving as the Director of Cultural Policy Studies at the İKSV since 2010. Among the projects she has designed and implemented under her directorship are: "Ortaklaşa: Culture, Dialogue and Support Programme" (2023 – 2025), "Thread of Culture" (Kültür Hattı), the first project from Türkiye to receive support from UNESCO’s International Fund for Cultural Diversity (IFCD). From 2019 to 2022, Ece was a member of the Advisory Board of the WOW – Women of the World Festival Istanbul. Between 2020 and 2021, she taught at Istanbul Kültür University as a visiting faculty member in the Department of Arts Management. In 2018, she was selected as a fellow of the Turkey-Europe Future Forum.

Earlier in her career, she was appointed General Coordinator of the “Cultural Season of Turkey in France” (2009 – 2010), an international cultural diplomacy programme realized under the patronage of the Turkish and French Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Culture.

 Ece holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration in French from Marmara University, and a master’s degree in Cultural Project Management from Sciences Po Grenoble, supported by a scholarship from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She is currently a member of the Executive Board of the Turkish National Commission for UNESCO and Chair of its Committee of Experts on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. She also serves on the Advisory Board of Marmara Urban Forum (MARUF).