She graduated from Ankara University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in 1991. She received an MSc in Medical Microbiology from Georgia State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Atlanta, GA , USA. Upon graduation she was awarded a Research Fellowship from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA where she worked for 3 years as an international researcher. She then worked as Senior Research Specialist at Emory School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA until 2004. She received her PhD on influenza virus genetics from Department of Microbiology and Clinical Microbiology, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine where she served as the Coordinator of the National Influenza Reference Laboratory for 9 years. She became an Associate Professor in 2013 at the same institution.
She was a board member of European Scientists Working on Influenza (ESWI).She served as editor for WHO Influenza Bulletin. She was the founding member of country Influenza Stakeholer Network (Grip Platformu) in Turkey and regional network, MENA-ISN.
Dr. Akçay has authored and co-authored over 50 articles published in peer reviewed journals and gave numerous talks at local and international congresses.
She joined Sanofi Pasteur in 2014 as a Regional Disease Expert on Influenza for Africa, Middle East and Eurasia Regions (MENA)
Since 2018 she is based in Lyon as Global Medical Expert/Influenza, Sanofi.