Ilhan Avcioglu is a teacher and advocate of civics and human rights education currently residing in Andover, Massachusetts.

Ilhan was born in Chicago, Illinois and traveled to the Middle East many times early in life. This led to an interest in international politics and American University, earning a degree in International Studies. After a brief time in the field of law, he returned to the east coast for graduate school and attended Northeastern and Tufts Universities where he began taking classes with Sherman at the Experimental College (The Underworld of U.S. Foreign Policy and History of the Middle East). He also was a part of the EPIIC International Symposiums at Tufts University of 1991 (Confronting Political and Social Evil). Following graduation, he returned to Chicago to begin his teaching career, at both the high school and college levels.

Ilhan has advocated for a more prominent role for civics education at the public school level. He believes that citizens must be aware and knowledgeable about their government in order to successfully participate. He was part of a Chicago Public Schools group that collected data and provided it to the Illinois State legislature which in 2015 passed a law requiring public schools to provide at least a semester of civics education.

Since returning to Massachusetts in 2017, he has been actively promoting civics education and ethnic studies, both at Andover High School and in Boston Public Schools where he was a part of a Civics Teacher Leader Cohort with Facing History and Ourselves.