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EDUCATION
Julie graduated high school and enrolled in the SUNY system as a Wendell Foundation Scholar.  She earned a Bachelor of Science in Fine Art Education (at the time one of 21 programs nationwide) with minors in Art Therapy and Art Restoration.  While enrolled in college, she worked at the Albright Knox and Burchfield Penney Art Galleries in the curatorial departments.  She also worked for Great Lakes United advocating for state and provincial goverments with Great Lake geography to share awareness, policies, ideas, resources, and efforts. She studied abroad at the Manchester Metropolitain (UK) in the Interactive Arts program under the landscape artist David Smith and satisfied her humanities requirement studying ‘Moral Ethics and Colonialism’.  Her studies there offered her the opportunity to explore the works of Joseph Banks in detail in support of her interest in curation. She graduated at the top of her class and earned the national award from the Getty Foundation for Art Education.  She was also a Fulbright finalist with a proposal to study the educational methods sustained during the Soviet regime that preserved textile heritage arts in the Baltic states; and to write and translate a curriculum that could be integrated into Art Education and Social Studies classrooms. Julie started her MSEd at Canisius College in Educational Technology Administration and Finance in efforts to earn her Superintencency of Schools.




 
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CHS/MLB via MAN/LAS from WNY

CAREER
In 1998, Julie accepted a teaching position in Las Vegas to develop curriculum integrating Fine Art and Technology and to set up distance learning for the AP Fine Art courses administered through Princeton University. All of her students recieved college accepted credit.  This was at a new magnet school called ‘Advanced Technologies Academy’. During her tenure, A-Tech was consistently the #1 performing high school in Nevada and was featured in Newsweek as one of the top 10 schools in the nation.  Julie was named Teacher of the Year for Clark County her third year teaching.  Her side hustles included writing for two weekly publications as a restaurant critic, creating graphics and marketing for the local club music industry and writing for Rolling Stone on the subject.  Her membership of the Nevada Pastel Society offered an opportunity to display her drawings at a number of Clark County public libraries.  She traveled to Fiji to lecture at the University of Suva and on Labasa at Holy Family Schools about the integration of Technology and Fine Art in curriculum. She then traveled to Tasmania to visit her brother for three weeks who was studying biology and ethnobotany at the University of Hobart. There she was able to see first hand Joseph Banks’ inspiration. After 4 years, Julie returned to NYS to accept a position working for the NYS Education Department helping rural school districts (smallest school district had 14 students total) navigate the staunch state technology access and reporting requirements while completing her MSEd and becoming a certified Superintendent of Schools.  At age 27, she completed this goal while finishing her internship in Charleston at the Charleston Day School where she wrote their first curriculum, set up their online grading system, and consulted on their website and marketing identity. Julie moved on to teach technological professional development for the Charleston County School District teachers, then advanced to exercise her certification and become one of the IT directors responsible for the IT budget, Acceptable Use Policy, IT procurement, staff (45) phones, internet, datawarehouse, and the website(s).  A company she procured lured her away to work as a consultant servicing the 40 largest school districts in the country in refining their images to the public world through the use of technology, policy, and message; becoming a source of information not a target of criticism. The company was sold and Julie was recruited to teach and write curriculum at the Art Institute in the Fashion department where she remained an adjunct for 10 years on and off. To supplement her income she worked as a fashion designer (with her own line and as a ghost designer for Neiman Marcus and Steinmart), online vintage retail seller, stylist and tailor in film/TV (Ann Taylor, Johnson & Murphy, Peter Lindburgh, Georgia Lottery, army Wives, Southern Charm, and most recently a short film nominated for Oscar eligibility in 2022), and consultant to creative professionals (mostly fine artists and chefs) helping them develop a digital presence and tactile brand identity. Other creative projects include directing the artwork at the Dewberry Hotel (188 rooms) managing commissions, framing and hanging all artwork, developing prints and license agreements for them.  She consults local museums on their curation and installation. She has her real estate license and works for the grandson of the first real estate agent in Charleston. Together they work on historic preservation and land development projects.  Drawing as a means of communicating ideas has always been a part of Julie’s work; not merely teaching drawing itself. 

Julie currently splits her time between Charleston, SC and the Florida Space Coast pursuing her creative professional endeavours and surfing.
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