Dr. Hakan Kaya
Cancer specialist and partner at Cancer Care Northwest in Spokane, Washington.

Dr. Hakan Kaya is a cancer specialist and partner at Cancer Care Northwest in Spokane, Washington. He is the director of the Inland Northwest Myeloma/Lymphoma and Transplant Program. He is also an assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Dr. Kaya is a well-respected specialist in treatment of multiple myeloma, a type of bone marrow cancer.

He graduated from Ankara Ataturk Anatolia High School (Ankara Ataturk Anadolu Lisesi) in 1986 and spent a year as an AFS (American Field Service) student in Wamego, Kansas. Upon returning to Turkey, he attended Ankara University School of Medicine (Ankara Universitesi Tip Fakultesi). Following graduation from medical school in 1993, he moved to US with his wife Hulya to do his post-graduate residency training. Dr. Kaya completed a very successful internal medicine residency at the University of Oklahoma in 1997 followed by a hematology, oncology, and bone marrow transplantation fellowships at the Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC.

He has been living in Spokane, WA with his wife Hulya and their daughter Erin (15) since 2001. He has been the recipient of multiple awards including Outstanding Clinical Faculty Award for 2006-2007 by Internal Medicine Residency Spokane, the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA) 2004 Outstanding Achievement in the Arts/Sciences Award, Chief Residents’ Award for Outstanding Service to the Residency Program, and others. He is a frequent lecturer in multiple myeloma at regional and national meetings.

Dr. Hakan Kaya has been one of the Turkish American leaders since 2001. He was the founding president of Turkish American Cultural Association of Inland Northwest. He then served as the Vice President of ATAA responsible from Northwestern Region. He continues to promote Turkish Americans and Turkiye by being a very active community member in his region. Dr. Kaya who holds a black belt in Taekwondo is an avid martial artist.

 

As a part of the ATAA's  Community Information Service (CIS), the ATAA Executive Committee has decided to run the ATAA StarTURK program to recognize and commend successful Turkish Americans in the sciences, medicine, arts, business, literature, politics, sports and general vocations.  We invite the Turkish American community to participate in this program by writing to assembly@ataa.org regarding successful Turkish Americans in your communities.