She was born in 1981 in Samsun. She graduated from Samsun İmam Hatip High School in 1999. She completed her undergraduate and graduate studies at the Vienna University of Economics and Business between 2001 and 2008. She earned her PhD at Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University with her dissertation titled “Social Innovation and Turkey: Its Potential, Dynamics, and the Role of the State in Supporting Social Innovative Initiatives.”
During the 2016-2017 academic year, she was a visiting researcher at Harvard University. During this time, she served on the Founding Committee of the Social Innovation Studio established within Harvard University.
Since 2019, Ateş has been working as an assistant professor in the Department of Labor Economics and Industrial Relations at Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University. She continues her voluntary academic mentoring activities at middle and high schools and serves as a consultant on European Union (EU) projects. She conducts scientific studies within COST-Action working groups and is actively involved in non-governmental organizations. Her research areas include social innovation, social entrepreneurship, social development and progress, social policy, socially vulnerable groups, digitalization, and employment.
Fluent in English and German, and proficient in Indonesian at an intermediate level, Ateş is married and a mother of three.
