Updated on November 16, 2022

John Alpay


John Alpay, a resident of San Clemente, served as Area 3 Trustee for the Capistrano Unified School District, the ninth largest school district in California from November 2010 until 2016. He previously served as a Parks & Recreation Commissioner for San Clemente, and on the Budget & Finance Committee for Talega, his 3200 unit homeowners association. He remains as a director for the Spanish Village Foundation, a local nonprofit. John is also involved with the San Clemente Sunrise Rotary and the Hawaiian Surf Club of San Onofre. He and his wife Rochelle have three children together.

Dr. Onur Arugaslan


Dr. Onur Arugaslan was elected to serve a six-year term as a trustee (nonpartisan) on the Mattawan Consolidated School Board of Education in Michigan on November 8, 2022. Previously, he served on the same board from March 2019 through December 2020 appointed to fill a vacancy due to a resignation. Dr. Arugaslan is a Professor of Finance at Western Michigan University, where he has worked since 2002. He has been involved extensively with the community serving on the boards of Crescendo Academy of Music and Kalamazoo Country Day School for a total of eight years. In addition, Dr. Arugaslan has collaborated with elected officials at the local, state, and federal levels. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Bilkent University and a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Kemal Bozkurt


Kemal Bozkurt was elected to the board of Lawrence Public Schools (Massachusetts) in 2015 and served until 2016. In Lawrence, he served as Acting Director and Assistant Director of the Public Library and was a member of the Zoning Board. Bozkurt completed his undergraduate studies at Selcuk and Anadolu Universities in Turkey and received a Master’s Degree in Banking and Insurance from Marmara University. He also received a Master’s Degree in Library Information Science from Syracuse University. He has lived in Lawrence for over 20 years. He and his wife have three children.

Esin Busche


Esin Busche previously served as Naperville Township Trustee, a member of the Fair Housing Advisory Commission, and a Republican Precinct committeewoman in Naperville, IL. She has also served as membership chairman for the Naperville Republican Women for three terms and was the Naperville campaign coordinator for the presidential and governor/lieutenant governor races in 2004 and 2006. Esin has a master’s in chemistry works for the Dow Chemical Company. She currently lives on the south side of Naperville Township with her husband and son.

Hacibey Catalbasoglu


Hacibey ‘Haci’ Catalbasoglu was elected as an Independent in the November 7, 2017 general election to the Board of Alders for Ward 1 in New Haven, Connecticut. Haci is 19 years old and a junior at Yale University. He is the youngest Turkish American to ever run and be elected to public office. He is also one of the youngest Alders to ever serve on the Board of Alders in New Haven. In 2017, he was nominated to serve on the city’s Commission on Homelessness after many years of volunteering and advocacy for the New Haven Livable City Initiative through New Haven’s Youth@Work program. He was recommended for confirmation to the Commission by a unanimous vote of the Board of Alders’ Aldermanic Affairs Committee on April 24, 2017. As a member of the Commission, Haci is tasked with advising New Haven Mayor Toni Harp on how to actively combat the homelessness epidemic in New Haven. In the summer of 2016, he had the opportunity to intern for U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT).

Hon. Jay Karahan


Judge Jay (Ceyhun) Karahan was elected to judicial office in November 2002 and was sworn in as Judge of Harris County Criminal Court-at-Law No. 8 on January 1, 2003. He was re-elected to that office 3 more times and served until December 31, 2018, when he retired from active judicial service. Judge Karahan is a native of Tampa, Florida. Judge Karahan moved to Texas in 1979 to study law at South Texas College of Law. In 1987, the U.S. Attorney General appointed him an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas. As a federal prosecutor he served in the Major Offender Division, Bank Fraud Task Force, and as a district coordinator for child exploitation investigations and prosecutions. As both a state and federal prosecutor Judge Karahan tried to jury verdict over 100 serious felony cases. He is licensed to practice before the Texas Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Judicial Circuit. Since 1988 Judge Karahan has been certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization as a Criminal Law Specialist.

Edward Kranick


Edward Kranick is a supervisor in the Town of Delafield in Waukesha County, Wisconsin. (Note: The Town of Delafield is a separate municipality from the City of Delafield, also in Waukesha County.) Kranick who has served several years on Delafield’s Town Board was reelected as supervisor in April 2021. His Turkish mother is from Adana, Turkey.

Hon. Ali Paksoy


Judge Ali Paksoy serves as a district court judge for the 27B Judicial District of North Carolina, which presides over Cleveland and Lincoln countries. Judge Paksoy received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his J.D. from the University of Alabama.

Aycha Sawa


Aycha (Sirvanci) Sawa was elected as City Comptroller, a nonpartisan position, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on April 7, 2020. She is the 13th Turkish American elected to public office, the first Turkish American to become a Chief Financial Officer for a major American city, and the second woman elected as a city official in Milwaukee. Sawa is a first-generation Turkish American born in Milwaukee. As a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Certified Internal Auditor, she has served as Deputy Comptroller in Milwaukee for three years before becoming Comptroller. She has an undergraduate degree in Accounting and Management from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After graduation, Sawa worked as an auditor in the state of Wisconsin’s Department of Transportation and a CPA firm before joining Milwaukee’s Comptroller Office. At the University of Wisconsin, she was an officer in the Madison Association of Turkish Students and started a Turkish film festival in Madison. She also attended a semester at Bosphorus University as an exchange student. Sawa has been an active member of the Turkish American Association in Milwaukee. She is married to Drew Sawa, and they have one daughter.

Tayfun Selen


Tayfun Selen of Chatham, New Jersey, a Republican, was elected on February 1, 2020 as a Morris County Freeholder (County Commissioner) to fill a vacant seat on the Morris County seven-member Board of Chosen Freeholders (County Commissioners). He had served as the Chatham Township (Morris County) Mayor as well as on the Chatham Borough Zoning Board of Adjustment and the Chatham Municipal Committee. He is a member of the Morris County Republican Committee and Chairman of the Chatham Township Republican Committee. Selen is an architect, accountant, and businessman who serves on the Advisory Board for Montclair State University’s School of Business. He previously held a seat on his local Board of Adjustment. Selen holds a BS in Architecture from Istanbul Technical University and an MBA from Montclair State University in New Jersey.

Malik Tunador


Malik Tunador ran and won a seat on the Council of the Thornburg Borough of Allegheny County, PA in the early 1990s. Tunador has been living in Thornburg Borough since 1976 and served one term on the Borough Council.

Dr. Erdem Ural


Dr. Erdem Ural was elected in to the Stoughton School Committee in Stoughton, Massachusetts in 2008. He served in that position from 2008 to 2011. In 2012, Ural was re-elected to the School Committee, serving until 2015. Dr. Ural holds a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan. He has resided in Stoughton for over 30 years and is married with 2 children.

Sel Yackley


Sel E. Yackley of Chicago, IL was elected to the Illinois Valley Community College Board of Directors from 1987-1997, in which she received the highest votes in a seven-county election. Previously she was elected to the Illinois Valley Community College Board of Directors in Ottawa, IL from 1976-1987. Sel is a published author, business owner, and skilled fundraiser. She remains active in her community as a volunteer for the Lyric Opera of Chicago and is an active member of various societies and associations. Currently, Sel runs her own public relations agency and travel agency.

Mehmet “Matt” Yar


Mehmet “Matt” Yar was elected to the Bloomfield County Education Board in New Jersey in 1998 and served until 2001. He chose not to run for a second term. When another board member resigned in 2002, Yar was appointed by the local election committee to fill the vacated seat. His second period of service on the board lasted until 2004.