She is a faculty member of the Department Of Public Administration in Dokuz Eylül University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences. She acquired the titles of Doctor in 1985, Associate Professor in 1990 and Professor in 1996 in the Department of Urbanization and Environmental Problems within the same department. She is currently the Head of the Department of Public Administration and of the Department of Local Governments, Urbanization, and Environmental Policies. She is the founder of Master's (2014) and Doctorate (2015) programs in Disaster Administration under the Social Sciences Institute in Dokuz Eylül University.



Mrs. Toprak Karaman has founded the Strategic Planning, Governance, and Research Center of the City of Izmir (IZISYOM-2005) and has been the director of this institution. She was appointed as a representative of Dokuz Eylül University to work as a member of the Development Council of the Development Agency in Izmir (2006-2013). She actively volunteered in the works of Izmir Yerel Gündem 21 (Local Agenda 21) between 1995 and 2010. In 2013, she founded the Association of Sustainability and Governance of Mountain Areas. She has still worked as the executive committee member of this Association since 2020. She worked on preparing development plans in local government and environmental expertise commission on a national level. She co-chaired the 10th Expertise Commission on Development Plan and Local Governments.



She has books on local governments, urban administration and policies, environmental administration and policies; research studies and articles published in national and international magazines on local politics, urban and environmental problems, different types of migrations, disaster risks and especially European Council (The Congress of Local and Regional Governments) agreements; and awards from various institutions and organizations.