Karahan received her B.A. and M.A. degrees from Boğazici University in Management and Economics, respectively. She earned her PhD degree in Economics at Syracuse University in 2006, where she also conducted research for the Center for Policy Research. After returning to Turkey, she served as an advisor at the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) and taught part-time at several universities. She has also served for over a decade as a consultant for leading business associations in Turkey, including the Turkish Exporters' Assembly (TIM) and the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey (DEIK). She joined Istanbul Medipol University in 2015 as the founding head of the Department of Economics and Finance. In 2017, she was appointed as senior economic advisor to the President of Turkey. Karahan has also worked as a visiting scholar at Harvard University and Columbia University for a period of two years.