The Speakers
Osman
Oztoprak
Managing Director at
Alliance for Shared Values
Osman Oztoprak is an accomplished educational leader and community organizer with a deep commitment to fostering intercultural dialogue and understanding. A founder and former school principal, he dedicated seven years to teaching science and leading a private school in New Jersey. Since 2001, Mr. Oztoprak has been actively involved in the Turkish American community, playing a pivotal role in founding several intercultural and interfaith organizations in the New York and New Jersey areas.
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His academic achievements include a Bachelor of Science in Physics and two master’s degrees—one in education from Rutgers University New Brunswick and another in diplomacy and international relations from the Whitehead School at Seton Hall University. Currently, he serves as the Managing Director of the Alliance for Shared Values, which acts as an umbrella organization for Interfaith initiatives across the United States and provides resources and support for the Hizmet Movement. Through his work, Osman continues to promote understanding and collaboration among diverse communities.
Nuray
Yurt
Head of Integrated Research and Forecasting at Merck
Nuray Yurt, PhD is currently Head of Integrated Research and Forecasting for Merck Human health. She recently lead the global teams and oversee strategic partnerships for AI projects over commercial and medical areas of Novartis Oncology. Previously, as a data science expert , she led several teams in the areas of data science, business analysis and market research within Novartis Oncology US Organization. She also worked in other small bio-techs in the areas of commercial and medical planning .
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Nuray is also the President for Pharmaceutical Management Science Association board since 2013 where she has worked Pharma industry to organize conferences, symposiums, publish journals to create training and networking opportunity for all new business analysts and data scientists.
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She is also a board member for Peace Islands Institute where she partners with interfaith organizations to improve local peace within the NJ community. Nuray has Ph.D. in econometrics . She lives with her husband and 3 kids in Cedar Grove NJ. She enjoys traveling and learning new languages.
Alp
Aslandogan
Executive Director of the
Alliance for Shared Values
Dr. Y. Alp Aslandogan is the Executive Director of the Alliance for Shared Values, a non-profit organization that promotes bringing together citizens of diverse backgrounds around shared values of humanity. The Alliance serves as an umbrella for foundations focusing on interfaith and intercultural dialogue in North America, bringing together citizens of Christian, Jewish, Muslim and other faith backgrounds around meaningful conversations and social responsibility projects.
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Dr. Aslandogan also serves as the chair of the Integration Committee of the North America Civic Platform, an association of cultural, religious and humanitarian organizations established by Hizmet Movement participants in North America.
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Prior to his current position Dr. Aslandogan served as the president of North American University, an adjunct faculty member of Prairie View A&M University, the board president of the Institute of Interfaith Dialog and a board member of the Gulen Institute in Houston, Texas.
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Dr. Aslandogan is a co-editor of “Muslim Citizens of the Globalized World: Contributions of the Gulen Movement” and a co-author of “The Messenger: Prophet Muhammad and his life of compassion”.
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Dr. Aslandogan has served as an author and an editor of the Fountain magazine, and as a member of the board of practitioners and scholars of the Journal of Interreligious Dialogue. He published opinion columns on Huffington Post, CNN.com and Newsweek.com. As the director of Alliance for Shared Values and a personal translator for Turkish Muslim scholar Fethullah Gulen, the inspiration behind the Hizmet Movement, he was interviewed by PBS, CBS, and Voice of America.
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Dr. Aslandogan holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also did graduate studies at Hartford Seminary in Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations.