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2 0 0 6 MOST ACCOMPLISHED W O M A N Sel Erder Yackley    www.selyackley.com   Sel's Biography (Jan 06)     Sel Erder Yackley was born in Istanbul and reared in Ankara. She was educated in the United States and has lived in Arizona and Illinois most of her adult life. Sel has worked as a reporter and editor, as a college instructor, as a public relations consultant, as a fund-raiser and as a travel agent. She has just realized her life-long dream of writing a book, "Never Regret the Pain": Loving and Losing and Bipolar Spouse to be published in the U.S. in March 2006.   Those wanting to order her book should go to www.selyackley.com   Affectionately known as Mama Turk for her nurturing nature Mrs. Yackley was recognized as a Daughter of Ataturk at the turn of the century. Because she has played a leading role in every Turkish cause in the Midwest including the founding of the Turkish American Cultural Alliance (TACA) in the 1960s, she was honored with a Meritorious Service Award by ATAA in 2002.   She is owner and manager of Say it With Sel/See it With Sel, a public relations agency organizing tours to Turkey for Americans and doing promotional work for Turkish clients.   An award-winning journalist with the Chicago Tribune and United Press International, her writing and public relations skills are helpful as she raises funds for causes such as the Kanuni Suleyman Professorship, Turkish Language Lectureship and the Amuq Valley Excavation Projects at the University of Chicago. Active in Democratic politics, Sel has reached across the U.S. to help Oz Bengur with his run for U.S. Congress. She herself has been elected to boards such as the Illinois Valley Community College and the Ottawa (Illinois) Elementary Schools.   In Chicago she serves on the board of the International Women Associates, which has a very active Turkish Culture component; she chairs the Amuq Valley Excavations Project Committee connected to the Oriental Institute at U of C and is a member of Turkish American Women Scholarship Fund as well as the Turkish American Cultural Alliances.   Sel's three children are multi-lingual. The oldest, John, owns a money management company in Chicago with clients from South America, Canada, Germany, Russia and Turkey. Daughter, Ayla, is a foreign correspondent in Turkey having lived in Ankara and Istanbul since 2000. The younger son Joseph speaks five languages and is getting his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in Middle Eastern Economic Development. He has worked and lived in Germany, Romania, Turkey, Lebanon and Syria.   Sel was 16 when she came from Ankara Koleji to Phoenix, Arizona as an AFS exchange student. Upon her return to Ankara, she worked for TUSLOG (The US Logistics Group) and came back to America to receive her bachelor degree in journalism from Arizona State University. The next year she earned a Master's from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and worked for United Press International and the Chicago Tribune. Her husband Frank Yackley was elected States Attorney and then Circuit Judge, presiding over three counties in central Illinois, where they raised their children. Upon his death Sel moved back to Chicago and became active in the travel business. Sel has traveled in every continent except Australia. Sel Yackley      Say it with Sel/ See it with Sel (312) 944-2420 selyackley@sbcglobal.com    www.selyackley.com    contact:meltemtunar@yahoo.com Tawsf Membership Form Home Page