Unity Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: UNTY), the parent company of Unity Bank, was one of the top ranked New Jersey community banks on the American Banker magazine list of the Top 200 Publicly Traded Community Banks in 2018. The bank was ranked 19th nationally on the respected industry list, which reviewed 633 institutions throughout the U.S. Clinton-based Unity Bank ranked last year among the nation’s most profitable banks on the smaller end of the industry spectrum — and the most profitable in New Jersey. This made it a headline item in American Banker’s year-end rankings, right on the heels of the bank’s best financial quarter in its history. While employing three Turkish-Americans, the Bank has a very close relationship with the Turkish-American community and James A. Hughes, Unity Bank President and CEO, says that they would like to deepen their relationships with the community. Hughes talked to TURKOFAMERICA about their 2018 performance, relations with Turkish-American community and future.

Soh Young Lee-Segredo has been performing all her life. She is a singer, choir director, storyteller and program coordinator. When she was 10 years old, she created ‘Charlie Chapplin Act’ and performed in front of large audience in the street of S. Korea. At age 15, she was vice president of the Red Cross Youth Middle school division, Seoul and experienced first-hand leadership. Via S Korea, to Paraguay, Brazil, Spain, Soh Young Lee-Segredo was exposed to multiculturalism and she learned value of diversity in gender, race, languages, different music and people.

She is a founding member and director of the Multicultural Peace Mission Choir, Soh Young Ensemble and Soh Young and Friends. She sang National Anthems in Madison Square Garden and Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

By Dr Mehmet Oz - My father Mustafa Oz was born October 4, 1925 in the poor farming village of Bozkir near Konya, Turkey.  Although he participated in events that no one in his community and few in his country could have ever imagined, his heart never left this small town and he returned frequently to embrace the buildings that he built for future generations of students. Mustafa earned scholarships at every level of his education, which inspired his support of promising students who cannot afford education.  After graduating Cerrahpaşa Medical School at the top of his class in 1950, he was accepted into the general residency at Western Reserve University residency in Cleveland, USA (where Mehmet was born in 1960) and cardiothoracic training at Emory University in Atlanta (where Seval was born in 1961) before he began training other doctors in Wilmington, Delaware (where Nazlım was born in 1967). His biggest accomplishment was marrying my mother Suna Yıldız Atabay in 1959 and learning to take her advice over a 60-year marriage. He moved back to his beloved Turkey and operated into his 80s at top hospitals in Istanbul including his beloved Florence Nightingale.

By Mona Diamond Sunshine - “Three months after I got married, my husband and I traveled to Turkey. At that time, I was given Turkish citizenship as I was married to a Turkish citizen.  We settled in Ankara where I lived for two years before returning to the United States. We settled in Atlanta, Georgia where I had my three sons, Burak, Turan and Kamuran. After we settled in Atlanta, we became very involved with the Turkish community here in Atlanta. At that time, we were only 150 Turkish people living in the city. We were a very close knit group and I helped organize the Turkish American Cultural Association of Georgia. I became vice president on two occasions. I was also a member of ATAA in Washington, DC and would go to the yearly meetings of ATAA.