Research Associate 
julie.atella@wilder.org

Julie has been working as an evaluator and researcher since 1995. Her background includes research in the areas of juvenile delinquency, juvenile justice, and corrections, as well as program evaluation. Julie completed her Ph.D. course work and obtained her Master of Arts degree in Criminal Justice from Washington State University in Criminal Justice/Political Science. She also holds a B.A. in Sociology/Law & Society from the University of California at Riverside.

Julie joined Wilder Research in 2008, but prior to Wilder was the Hennepin County Site Director for the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program, a federal program within the National Institute of Justice and worked on a statewide racial disparities initiative. She currently works on a number of government and community-based research and evaluation projects around school-based mental health, recidivism, and oversees the development of the MN Kids' Database, as well as providing evaluation services to Wilder Foundation programs.

Recent projects

• Coordination and evaluation services for the MN Kids’ Database, a school-based mental health database
• Evaluation of the Minnesota Department of Health’s Children Trust Fund
• Research for Destination 2010, a multi-year initiative of the Minneapolis Foundation designed to provide support to academically at-risk youth and their families
• Evaluation services for the Hennepin County Children’s Mental Health Collaborative