The Most Influential Turkish-American Women #16 - Yıldız Yuksek Blackstone was born in Alsancak, outside of Izmir, and graduated from Izmir's Dokuz Eylul University. Blackstone grew up surrounded by fashion. She began her career in retail working with her parents who own 30+ retail stores and a franchise of the upscale Beymen Department Store in Izmir, Turkey. She had always dreamed of living in America, and this dream came true when she went to the US, after graduating from university, to do master's work. She received her Degree in Fashion Design and Merchandising from the Fashion Institute of Technology.
The Most Influential Turkish-American Women #17 - When contemplating Turkish -American lobbying activities in the U.S., Lydia Borland is one of the first names that comes to mind. After all, she has been walking the halls of Congress since 1989. Even though she isn’t a Turkish citizen – her dad is from North Carolina and her mother is Italian, - she speaks fluent Turkish and has absorbed the Turkish culture as only one who has grown up in the country can. She has worked with Turks for over 30 years. At the beginning of her professional career, she worked in İzmir in 1983. Her first job was as an intern at the IMF Africa Department. 
The Most Influential Turkish-American Women #18 Aylin Uysal is Senior Design Director and Strategist of the Oracle Applications User Experience Team in San Francisco, CA. “My passion is transforming corporate culture by making design a driver of innovation and change,” she says. Uysal has eight user experience (UX) patents and her team’s main mission is to create world-class product designs that drive an exceptional user experience. 
The Most Influential Turkish-American Women #19 - Çiğdem Balım Harding is a senior lecturer in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at Indiana University. Balım is also the director of graduate studies and the director of language instruction in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. She has also been a senior examiner of Turkish Literature A1 for the International Baccalaureate Organization (examining World Literatures in Translation and Turkish Literature) since 1996. She received her B.A. at Hacettepe University in 1974 and her Ph.D. at the University of Washington in 1979. 
