Biography

Julie was born and raised in Macomb, Illinois. She attended college at Illinois Wesleyan University for two years, then in 1991 moved to Austin, Texas seeking adventure. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Julie earned her Bachelor's degree in the Spanish Language. She spent her semester abroad studying Spanish in Quito, Ecuador, at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador, and traveling throughout South America. Julie taught high school ESL and Spanish in Round Rock, Texas, for seven years. During that time, she was fortunate to take a leave of absence to pursue her Master's of Education in Learning & Teaching at Harvard's Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Prior to returning to Texas, Julie spent the summer as a Corps Member Advisor for Teach For America, training new recruits in New York City. Back in Texas, Julie worked for five years at UT Austin as a field trainer for the LUCHA program, which sought to assist school districts across Texas in accurately placing Mexican immigrant students in the grade levels appropriate for their education.

Julie moved to San Antonio in 2009 and since that time, she has worked in several school districts in Region 20 including Edgewood, North East, and Floresville, assuming a number of roles including Instructional Facilitator, Campus Testing Coordinator, ESL Specialist, and Spanish Teacher. From 2016 to 2021 Julie entered the world of higher education assessment as the Coordinator of Measurement and Evaluation for Palo Alto College, one of the five independently-accredited colleges of the Alamo Colleges District. While in the assessment position, Julie earned a graduate certificate from James Madison University in Higher Education Assessment and composed the response to Standard 8.2b, student outcomes for general education, for Palo Alto's decennial reaccreditation by SACS-COC. On August 1, 2021, she began her current role as Lecturer and Field Coordinator in the Texas A&M University-San Antonio's teacher education program. She currently teaches seminar courses to field residency and clinical teacher candidates, observes and provides coaching to candidates in the field, is the program liaison for six area school districts (East Central, Edgewood, Harlandale, La Vernia, Somerset, and South San), and serves as the testing specialist for TExES practice exams.