A university instructor, Sibel went back to school and at age 36 graduated as a mechanical engineer and entered into a career with Ford Motor Company. Following her retirement, Sibel founded EMBARQ TURKEY (now ‘’Turkey: WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities’’). As a child she sailed across the Atlantic from the US back to Turkey on an old freighter. Since then Sibel has loved the sea and has become an avid sailor, having sailed the North Sea, Baltic, Mediterranean, Aegean, Marmara, Black Sea and Sydney Harbor. In the summer, Sibel can be seen sailing my Laser around the Marmara.

Her interest in sustainability began with urban mobility. As a result of her work at EMBARQ, Sibel became interested in sustainable cities. Since 2013 she has been writing a column on ‘’Livable Cities’’ for EKOİQ. Sibel is also co-producer, part time host on medyascopetv’s ‘’The Cities Belong to Us’’ (Both in Turkish.) Nowadays her interest has expanded into living sustainably.

Sibel’s real superpower is her passion for life, for learning and for sharing her learnings. Turkey has become both an important exporter of plastic products and major importer of plastic waste. Given these facts, she believes Turkey has an important role to play in addressing plastic pollution. As an exxpedition crew member, Sibel was hoping to become the oldest woman to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, but COVİD dashed those hopes (for now.) But as a crew member on the Virtual Voyage, Sibel is learning about plastic pollution and looking forward to sharing her learnings.