background

Mara was born and raised in Ankara, Turkey. She was fascinated by impacts of design on human life at an early age, and this fascination became a life-long journey in the profession.

She studied industrial design at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, and graduated third in the class. She then moved to Istanbul for her graduate study at Mimar Sinan University (MSU). During her study at MSU, she was offered several scholorships, including a Fulbright. She accepted a full scholarship from Turkish Republic's Ministry of National Education to study abroad.

Mara started her graduate studies in Design Management at the University of Cincinnati (UC). During these years, the internet became a popular public medium. At one research class, Mara was introduced to the wide potentials of web and multimedia design and she became interested in the area. Her interest grew to a passion and she started applying her design theory knowledge to this new area of practice. She was brought on board as a graduate assistant at the Center for Academic Technologies at UC to design an intranet-based coursework development environment.

In 1999, she moved to Mycom and expanded her design skills beyond the educational environment. She then moved on to Optimum Group where she honed her skills in interactive and information design, and initiated usability testing procedures for the company. Optimum was purchased by CoActive Marketing Group and Mara continued her award-winning designs. She was quickly promoted to Senior Designer and then to Design Director, where she oversaw many projects.

Her resume is available to interested parties upon request.