Advisory Council

Bonnie Joy KASLAN: The Honorable Bonnie Joy Kaslan, Consul General of the Turkish Republic, is Executive Vice President of Kaslan Associates, Inc., a Sonoma based Structural and Geotechnical Engineering firm. She has served the Turkish American Community since 1978. Mrs. Kaslan, former graduate student at the Sorbonne, Paris, educator and department chairperson, was president of the Turkish American Association from 1983-1985. She served as the first woman on the Board of Directors of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations as Western region Vice President from 1982-1986. In 1982 she was named woman of the year for the Turkish American Community in California. She was a national chairman of the Assembly’s Curriculum Committee History and Social Science.

She has represented Turkish American interests at high level State Department meetings, addressed human relation commissions nationwide, worked on a one to one basis with innumerable congressional representatives and their staffs as well as delivered expert testimony before the Committee on Foreign Relation Relations. She was the first non-Turkish woman worldwide to represent the Republic of Turkey as Honorary Consul General developing and implementing educational and public relations programs as deemed necessary. She has appeared on radio and television nationwide as an educator, advocate and facilitator for a better understanding of Turkey and her people.

In addition to her advocacy for the betterment of Turkish American relations, Bonnie Joy is a former Member of the Board of Directors of Soroptimist International of Oakland. She is a graduate of the Coro Foundation’s Public Affairs Leadership program for women, as well as past member of the Board of Directors of American Women for International Understanding.

She was awarded Soroptimist’s distinguished “Women Helping Woman” award and honored as a role model for women on all levels’ local, national and international. The Assembly honored her with the Distinguished Service Award in 1987 and Meritorious Service Award in 1989. The International Institute of the East Bay honored her as the recipient of the Women of Tribute Award in 1991. She was honored for her leadership and contributions toward peaceful and greater international understanding.

She has been appointed to the Ethnic Advisory Commission for the State of California’s Department of Rehabilitation and serves as the President of the Sonoma Valley Chamber of Commerce. Recently she was one of the organizers of a "Spirit in Flight" retreat, dedicated to honoring flight attendants post September 11. She is also a member of the citizens advisory council of the Sonoma police department.