She received her BS and MS degrees in Chemical Engineering from Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey in 1997 and 2000, respectively, and her PhD in Engineering Management from Old Dominion University (ODU), Norfolk, VA in 2012. Her research interests include resilience, resilience quantification, risk, vulnerability, system of systems engineering, critical infrastructures, and port management. She is the member of the Port Management Steering Committee which is part of a Center of Advances in Port Management at Lamar University.