Ozsel Beleli

Background and Education

Özsel Beleli works at the intersection of social policy, human rights and governance issues. She has spent many years designing and implementing social development programs for communities affected by conflict and poverty. She has also been actively involved in research-based advocacy efforts in basic education and early childhood development in her home country, Turkey. Özsel has experience working for governmental, non-governmental and international organizations such as the European Commission, UNICEF, and Bernard van Leer Foundation in Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Özsel holds a Bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, a Master’s degree from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and is working towards her DPhil at the University of Oxford’s Department of Social Policy and Intervention. She has recently been a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Department of Sociology and Bilkent University’s Department of Political Science and Public Management. Her current research focuses on the political and organizational determinants of bureaucrats’ involvement in social policymaking processes in developing countries.

Currently a visiting research associate and an adjunct lecturer in IDEV, Özsel is teaching Basic Education in Low and Middle Income Countries during the Spring 2016 term.