Prior to joining West40, Julie served as superintendent of an Illinois Pre-K to 12 school district for 15 years, where she transformed the educational vision, climate, and culture through strategic planning, involving internal and external stakeholders. She specializes in systems development, policy and governance, organizational management, community relations, and human resources development. Social and emotional development is at the core of Julie's work. She led her school district through the ongoing work of developing racial equity and inclusion for all students and by the end of her tenure, the district had closed the graduation rate racial achievement gap while increasing the overall graduation rate by 10 percentage points.

Before becoming superintendent, Julie served as assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, high school building level administrator, and vocational child care and food service teacher. Julie is a registered executive coach, has taught master- and doctoral-level classes in educational leadership, provided training around a culture of inclusion and racial equity, and has mentored at least 10 of her administrators as they earned their doctoral degrees in education leadership.