Özüm Çelik is the IPC-Mercator Fellowship Program Officer. She completed her MA in Transnational Governance at the European University Institute (2024) and her BA in Political Science with a minor in Sociology at Istanbul Bilgi University (2022). Her MA thesis, titled “Exploring the Environmentalism of Right-Wing Populist Governments,” received distinction.

Özüm has gained experience in policy analysis, evaluation, and project management through various roles. She completed training in the Evaluation Division of the European Investment Bank (2024) and an internship at the Istanbul Policy Center (2023). She has also supported institutions such as IstanPol Institute and the Turkish National Commission for UNESCO as a student intern. Moreover, Özüm has been a dedicated volunteer at the Green Thought Association since 2020. She represents the association in KAHİP (Public Expenditures Monitoring Platform), contributing to research, data analysis, and policy development.

She aims to pursue a career as a researcher specializing in monitoring and evaluation, with a focus on sustainability, accountability, transparency, and justice. She brings strong analytical, research, and multicultural communication skills to her work, accompanied by a transnational perspective.