About Us! - SNAS - Society of North American Scholars

What is SNAS’ Mission?

Society of North American Scholars (SNAS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization initiated by an interdisciplinary network of scholars in the United States. SNAS aims to foster socially responsible scholarship by providing global mentorship, organizing academic conferences and workshops, and publishing reports, proceedings, and scholarly work. SNAS activities facilitate sustainable and ethical research practices that lead to social impact. Its broad areas of interest include:

education on a wide spectrum from liberal arts to STEM education as well as from primary to higher education,
conflict resolution at various levels of the social structure, and
poverty alleviation to reach economic, social, environmental and individual prosperity.

SNAS Membership

Membership is open to academics, professionals, and government officials. Membership benefits involve access to the national SNAS network and mentorship program, periodic SNAS newsletters, discounted registration fees for annual SNAS events (including the Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference in October and Research Methods Workshop in June), and voting rights in executive committee elections.
Annual membership fee is $100 ($50 for students). Become a SNAS Member here!

Fellowships & Awards:

During its annual research conference, SNAS awards the Best Abstract Award for the submission that is most consistent with the conference theme.

Previous Winners:

Dr. Zeliha Ozdogan (2022), Penn State Harrisburg: “The Use Of Open Access Educational Resources To Enhance Student Engagement and Learning in Economics Courses“
Dr. Nedim Durmus (2023), New York University: “New Technologies in Cancer Care and Future Prospects“
Dr. Mehmet Aktas (2024), Kennesaw State University: “Why Come to Class in the AI Era? A Qualitative Investigation of Nine Students in a Large Introductory Statistics Course”

Please visit our Fellowship page for more essential information on the SNAS Fellowhip Program.

SNAS Doctoral Research Grant:

SNAS awards the SNAS Doctoral Research Grant, designed to support travel and lodging expenses for current U.S. doctoral students whose research abstracts are accepted for presentation at the Annual SNAS Conference. To be considered for this award, applicants must email an application to info@snascholars.org.

SNAS Board

Dr. Hasan T. ArslanPresident

Hasan T. Arslan is a Professor of Justice and Law Administration in the Ancell Business School at Western Connecticut State University. Hasan holds a law degree from Marmara University and a Ph.D. from the College of Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University.
Dr. Arslan worked nine years at the Institute for the Study of Violent Groups (ISVG), where he contributed as a supervisor and analyst role to the development of a database capable of tracking more than 2000 global and domestic extremist groups. Dr. Arslan’s teaching interests include Criminology, terrorism, organized crime, and research methods. His primary research interests are in the field of homeland security and police use of force. Before coming to WestConn, he taught at University of New Haven, Western New England University and Pace University.

Dr. Sumeyra TekBoard Member

Dr. Sumeyra Tek is an Assistant Professor of Physics at the Department of Physics at Texas Lutheran University.

Dr. Selcuk AcarDirector of Mentorship

Selcuk Acar is an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology. He joined UNT in 2020 following his work at two different centers on creativity research: Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development and the International Center for Studies in Creativity. He earned his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Georgia, concentrating on Gifted and Creative Education. He holds his M.A. from Istanbul University in Gifted Education and B.A. in Educational Sciences from Bogazici University. His primary research focus includes divergent thinking, assessment of creativity, creative leadership, and identification of the gifted and talented.

Dr. Seyma Intepe TingirBoard Member

Dr. Seyma Intepe Tingir is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education at the University of Maryland.

Dr. Umit KarabiyikBoard Member

Dr. Umit Karabiyik (Dr. K) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Technology at Purdue University. Prior to his appointment at Purdue, Dr. K was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Sam Houston State University from 2015 to 2018. Dr. K received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Florida State University in 2010 and 2015, respectively. His research interests broadly lie in Digital Forensics, Cybersecurity, Forensic Intelligence, User and Data Privacy, Artificial Intelligence in Security, Privacy and Forensic Applications.

Dr. Levent KocBoard Member

Dr. Levent Koc is the Executive Director at UPLIFT Academy Education Services.

Dr. Omer TopalogluDirector of Communications

Dr. Omer Topaloglu is a Professor of Marketing at Silberman College of Business, Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU). His expertise areas include branding, digital marketing, and nonprofit marketing. He is the founding president of SNAS and served in this capacity for three years from 2021 until 2024.

Dr. Sabah BushajDirector of Membership

Dr. Sabah Bushaj is an assistant professor of data analytics in the Management Information Systems and Analytics Department. Dr. Bushaj earned his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). Prior to starting in academia, Dr. Bushaj worked as an SAP Developer at ALBtelecom (a telecommunication company in Albania), and as an SAP Consultant for Brizo Consulting G.m.b.H (a consulting company in Germany).

Dr. Madji FallBoard Member

Dr. Madji Fall is an Assistant Professor of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) at Kean University. She is a Teacher Educator and Language and Literacy Educator whose work is grounded in anti-racist and anti-linguicism philosophies aimed at improving minoritized communities’ educational, economic, and health conditions. She advocates for policies and practices that celebrate the identities of othered groups and create spaces for increased resilience and opportunity.

Dr. Necmi BiyikliDirector of Research

Dr. Necmi Biyikli received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from Bilkent University. After spending one year at Utah State University, in 2017 he joined the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department at University of Connecticut, where he leads the Atomic Layer Engineering Laboratory within the Center for Clean Energy Engineering (C2E2). Dr. Biyikli is a member of American Vacuum Society (AVS) and Materials Research Society (MRS) and has contributed to 350+ journal and conference publications.

Dr. Esra AkbasBoard Member

Dr. Esra Akbas is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Georgia State University. She leads the Data Engineering Lab (DELab) and its team of Ph.D., M.S., and undergraduate students. DELab works on a variety of problems ranging from the algorithmic side of machine learning to applications for solving real-world problems. Her research is in machine learning and data mining with a focus on relational data. Her work has spanned various applications, including drug-drug interaction prediction, sequence classification, and analyzing social media data for public health issues like Covid-19 and opioid addiction.