Dr. Ekici started his career as a Supervisor in the Turkish National Police in 1995 and quickly moved up the ranks. In 2001 he was deployed as Advisor to the UN Peace keeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina and was promoted to Section Chief and ended his mission as the Deputy Chief of the Department by the end of 2002. He has served in various departments and as the Chief of Police of several large and important districts (with populations ranging from 185,000-650,000). His most recent charge was completed in July 2014 as the Acting Security Counsellor at the Turkish Embassy in Vienna-Austria where he represented the Turkish National Police and did liaison work with the Austrian police and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

In 2003 he received a scholarship from the Turkish National Police to pursue his graduate studies in the US. He obtained his Masters Degree in Criminal Justice and his doctoral Degree in Public Administration-Policy Development and Analysis from the University of North Texas in 2009. His doctoral dissertation was an empirical study identifying factors contributing to an individual’s need to join terror groups. His Masters thesis was an in depth study on the impact of family dynamics on the runaway problem among teenagers and counter policies. He has continued this line of research by pursuing studies and projects on community policing to support counter-terrorism initiatives, diversity management, foreign fighters, radicalization, juvenile delinquency, public administration, governance, security policies and emergency management. He has conducted several community training programs and continues to seek opportunities to include citizens in policy development and application processes.

He has been actively involved in counter-terrorism in the North and Eastern regions of Turkey where the PKK terrorist organization was active. He developed several innovative community policing projects and policies to support combined counter terrorism efforts and reduce crime rates. He was successful in achieving this in the Baglar District in Diyarbakir and the Yildirim District in Bursa provinces (was not achieved in the last decade) through correct analysis of the causes and the development of appropriate projects that included the community, without endangering them and by acquiring their support to law enforcement agencies. He constantly tests and revises programs to make them as effective as possible and suited for the communities he served.

Dr. Ekici has experience in applying for grants and working on sponsored projects. He has been funded by NATO several times to offer international workshops on terrorism reduction strategies. Each project from its initiation to its culmination in a book publication took around two years.

Dr. Ekici has seven books (editorial and authorship) many book chapters and several journal articles published. The publications mostly focus on policy ideas dealing/countering terrorism and crime. He has served as the keynote speaker at many international conferences in many countries.

Dr. Ekici received numerous professional awards and commendation certificates from various Governors and the Ministry of Internal Affairs for his outstanding work as a police supervisor, and due to the projects he developed to achieve diversity management in police practices. He also received academic awards including the ‘Outstanding International Student Award’ and the ‘Who is Who Among American Universities’ from the University of North Texas while working on his graduate studies. He speaks three European foreign languages (English, German and Dutch). He holds years of experience in working and living in international environments and diverse settings and leading or working in teams.

Dr. Ekici is a motivated and challenging person who is eager to develop new ideas and methods, and is also open to suggestions and advancement. His extensive field experience and academic works have made him clear that advancement in any area is not possible without support of academic studies, cooperation and visionary people. Therefore, he always welcomes collaboration and cooperation offers from respective people and organizations.