During her time as a student at The George Washington University, Julia helped found the first mental health support network for students with disabilities on her campus. Upon graduating from college, she was determined to work more intensively to help others through education, and accepted a position teaching special education students in the Bronx through Teach For America. Over the two-year teaching assignment, she came to understand that change occurs through relentless perseverance, while seeing first-hand the myriad of challenges low-income students face. Her experiences taught her the importance of courageous advocacy and proved that even one person can make an incredible difference on a system.

However, as a teacher, Julia often became frustrated as she worked to help her students reach achievement goals that were set for them by state and national policy standards that seemed continuously to set them up for failure. She therefore decided to pursue a doctoral degree in education policy from the University of Cambridge in order to explore the possibilities of systemic reforms in our education system by drawing on lessons learned from comparative countries and systems.

Julia has lived, studied, and worked in various countries: Spain, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Most recently, she was awarded a Marshall Scholarship, which afforded her the opportunity to spend three years living and studying in the United Kingdom. During this time, Julia earned her MPhil in education research and her PhD in education policy, both from the University of Cambridge. While in the UK, Julia published journal articles and working papers, worked as a research assistant at the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies, served as the President of the UK fundraising board of Educar, Integrar and Crecer (EIC), an NGO serving students and their communities in shantytowns of Buenos Aires, and co-founded a theatre company in New York City. Prior to her time in the U.K., Julia graduated summa cum laude from The George Washington University and studied at the University of Sydney in her junior year. She went on to serve two years as a Teach For America corps member and also served as a content specialist in the area of special education, creating CD-ROMs with data tracking devices, tutorials, and differentiated instructional plans and strategies for corps members. During her time as a corps member, Julia completed two master's degrees from the City University of New York: Lehman College in special education and childhood education.

When she's not working relentlessly to disrupt the status quo in the social innovation world, Julia runs marathons, trains for a triathlon, attends all forms of music, dance, comedy, and drama productions, explores Manhattan's restaurants, and attempts to learn how to cook. She is one of seven children and currently lives in Manhattan.

Favorite place in the entire world?
Punting with friends on the River Cam in Grantchester, United Kingdom.

What book(s) are you reading at the moment?
Thankfully, after the successful completion of my doctoral degree, my reading list has expanded and is no longer dominated by Foucault and Gramsci. I am currently reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera and The Innovator's Prescription by Clayton Christensen, Jerome Grossman, and Jason Hwang.

What did you want to be when you were 10?
An Olympic figure skater. I was a competitive figure skater until I was 18. With 4am daily wakeup calls, it was not a lack of effort that kept me from my Olympic dreams...it was a lack of talent!