Ms. Firat provides the Korn Ferry Institute with a unique inter-disciplinarity perspective in Research and Thought Leadership that integrates social and biological sciences. She contributes to the neuroscience strategy for Korn Ferry and anticipates innovation strategies for KF business solutions to issues such as leadership, success, team performance and DEI, using an applied neuroscience lens.

Ms. Firat is a Neurosociologist with over 10 years experience conducting research on social cognition, inter-personal behavior and group dynamics. She has methodological expertise on complex data modeling, psychometric analysis and biometric data systems (GSR, ECG, fMRI). Her work has appeared in several peer-reviewed scientific publications in high impact journals like Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, American Behavioral Scientist, Perspectives on Psychological Science and Advances in Group Processes.

Prior to joining Korn Ferry in 2022, Ms. Firat worked as a tenure-track professor at University of California, Riverside and prior to that at Georgia State University. In addition to research and teaching undergraduate and graduate courses, she has collaborated with community, business and non-profit stakeholders on research projects, and co-led a multi-year, international project funded by the US Department of Defense.

Ms. Firat earned her MA and PhD in Sociology from University of Iowa with also extensive formal training in neurosciences, and her BA in Sociology from Koç University in Turkey. She has also received post-doctoral research training at the Evolution, Culture and Cognition Lab at Université Lumière Lyon 2, France. She is fluent in English and is a native Turkish speaker.