Ismet Cem Kaba grew up in Inebolu, Turkey. He has a PhD degree in Sports Management, and currently is a Senior Lecturer in the Sports Sciences at Kocaeli University in Turkey.
The Masters and PhD degrees awarded to him by Marmara University were as a result of his research first in leisure, commercial recreation and adventure tourism, and secondly in campus recreation management at universities. He has also conducted classes such as Principals of Recreation and Tourism, Recreation Programming, Water Sports and Tourism, Sail Training, Structure of Campus Recreation, Leisure Phylosophie, Recreation Centers Management, Career Development at Leisure at Marmara and Kocaeli Universities. He has some researches and feasibility project on Adventure Parks and articles on leisure, commercial recreation, adventure tourism, campus recreation.
In 2009-10 and 2017-18, he conducted some collaborative studies as a visiting scholar at the Indiana University School of Public Health, in the department of Recreation, Parks and Tourism studies (Health and Wellness Design). He is a research team member of Indiana University SPH's Aquatics Institute.
Prior to his academic career, Kaba was a supervisor in the outdoor adventure tourism industry. He has worked as a trainer, a tour guide and a head of activities team at the Turkey branch of the French Tourism Agency (UCPA). He has planned outdoor tourism programs and served as an advisor. In addition, he has organized and directed numerous youth and student camps during the summer and winter.
Cem once served as a Director of Athletic and Recreational Sports Division at Kocaeli University for two years. In 2013, he was an organizing committee member at the EASM Conference in Istanbul. And more recently, he was employed in outdoor adventure park design and in various outdoor recreation activities in Turkey. He is Secretary General of Turkish Rope Course and Adventure Parks Association (TRAPA).
Other professional accomplishments include: WFR certification by WMAI (2010) USA, certification in Sailing and Mountaineering by Turkish National Federations. He also finds time to organize a unique catamaran safari on the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas. For four years, He has assisted the Turkish Mountaineering Federation in the Kocaeli Province. Most recently, Cem is a member of the Tourism Commission of the Turkish Recreation Studies and Research Association (RSRA). He speaks Turkish, and is conversant in French and English.