IR Graduate Receives Gill Jacot-Guillarmod Award

Dr. Gözde Doğan Yalçıner (IR ’01) received the US-based Lois Roth Foundation’s Gill Jacot-Guillarmod honorable mention award for her diplomatic achievements. She helped link the Turkish government, NGOs and academic institutions to advance cultural heritage preservation, a mission that Turkey and the US share. The diplomatic bridge she worked to build resulted in the signing of a bilateral Cultural Property agreement between the two countries to jointly curb the illegal trafficking of cultural artifacts and protect cultural heritage. Dr. Yalçıner has been managing the US Diplomatic Mission’s public diplomacy and cultural programs for the past 15 years. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Westminster in the UK in public communication and public relations and a PhD in political science from Hacettepe University. Dr. Yalçıner was also one of the founding members of Radio Bilkent when she was a student at Bilkent.