Umit Gunebir
President & CEO
About
About
In brief
The Atlantic Institute is an interfaith dialogue and outreach nonprofit founded in 2004, based at 591 N Main St in Alpharetta, Georgia, with a second branch in Orlando. It runs 26 programme series — talks, shared meals, contests, service days and trips — and is open to anyone curious about a neighbour’s tradition, across Georgia and Florida.
Mission
Our mission
At the Atlantic Institute, we believe in fostering a global community through education, interfaith dialogue, and meaningful social experiences. Our diverse range of programs is designed to inspire, connect, and promote understanding among individuals from all walks of life.
In practice it looks like 26 programme series and 60 programmes on the 2026 calendar — lectures and luncheons, Ramadan dinners and iftars, service days and international trips — run from the Alpharetta headquarters and the Orlando branch.
Nearly all of it happens in someone else’s building: a synagogue, a chapel, a campus, a police department, a city hall. That is deliberate. Understanding is built where people already are.
Creating a Legacy of Understanding
Values
What we believe
Three commitments, each one legible in the 2026 calendar rather than in a statement of principles.
Hospitality
A table is the Institute’s basic unit of work. Eleven Ramadan dinners in 2026. An iftar at St. Martin in the Fields Episcopal Church and another with Georgia Tech faculty, staff and students. A Turkish Food Festival. Coffee nights where the invitation is simply to sit down.
Dialogue across difference
Difference is the starting condition, not the problem. Scripture Reasoning puts the Quran and the Bible on one table. Exploring Faiths sits with Red Clay Sangha and at Ahavath Achim Synagogue. Bridges of Understanding marked sixty years of Nostra Aetate.
Civic partnership
Neighbourliness is practical. Sixteen civic-engagement programmes this year: a YMCA day of service, bagel rescue with St. Thomas Aquinas, 500 sandwiches with The Sandwich Project ATL, tree planting with Trees Atlanta, and standing meetings with the Milton Police Department and FBI Atlanta.
Timeline
Our history
Twenty-two years, two branches and a calendar that has grown from a handful of gatherings into 26 programme series. Where a year is not yet confirmed in the record, it is marked as to come.
2004
Founded in Georgia
The Atlantic Institute is founded in Georgia as an interfaith dialogue and outreach organisation, carrying the line it still uses today: Creating a Legacy of Understanding. [FOUNDERS TK]
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A home at 591 N Main St, Alpharetta
591 N Main St, Alpharetta, Georgia becomes the Institute’s headquarters — the address it still works from. [MILESTONE TK] — year to be confirmed from the record.
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The programme series take shape
Education, the Table of Abraham and Trips grow into 26 distinct programme series — among them the Lecture Series, the Luncheon Series, the Leadership Forum, the Art & Essay Contest, Scripture Reasoning and Exploring Faiths. [MILESTONE TK] for the year each series began.
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Two branches: Alpharetta and Orlando
A second branch joins the Alpharetta headquarters in Orlando, Florida, where programmes such as the Southeast Dialogue Summit gather at the Sheraton Orlando North Hotel. [MILESTONE TK] — opening year to be confirmed.
Apr 2025
Recognised by the Georgia House of Representatives
The Atlantic Institute is recognised by the Georgia House of Representatives. [RESOLUTION NUMBER TK] · [SPONSORS TK]
2026
Sixty programmes on the calendar
The 2026 calendar carries 60 programmes across 26 series: 16 civic-engagement programmes, 11 Ramadan dinners and 10 Interfaith Connections visits, from Alpharetta to Orlando.
Our team
Leadership
Halime Benzer
Executive Director
Beyza Delen
Program Manager
Fatih Kurt
Programs and Initiatives Coordinator
Partners
Who we work with
Congregations, campuses and civic institutions that host the Institute’s work or share it.
- Woodward Academy
- The Fountain
- Kennesaw State University
- Georgia Tech
- Morehouse College
- Temple Emanu-El
- Ahavath Achim Synagogue
- The Temple
- Trees Atlanta
- The Place
- Turner Chapel AME
- Focolare Community
- Bagel Rescue
- Georgia State Capitol
- Atlanta JCRC
- Red Clay Sangha
- St. Thomas Aquinas
- Milton Police Department
- The Carter Center
Come to something
Every programme is open. The quickest way in is to pick a date on the calendar, or write to us and say what you are curious about.