Julie’s work focuses on the justice system, where she uses research to understand ways to make communities safer and create a fairer process for everyone impacted by the system. She is also interested in research and evaluation in mental health. Julie joined Wilder in 2008.

Julie works alongside community partners and government institutions to evaluate and research criminal, legal, and mental health programs to assess their effectiveness, identify best practices, and inform policy. Her recent work involves understanding the effects of incarceration on families, examining public safety equity in communities, and assessing the effectiveness of a trauma-informed program that provides mental health supports to keep students engaged in school.

Julie has a bachelor’s degree in sociology/law and society from the University of California Riverside, and a Master of Arts degree in criminal justice from Washington State University, where she also completed her doctoral coursework in political science, with a focus on public policy, methods, and criminal justice.

She serves on the board of NAMI Minnesota and is appointed to the Minnesota Community Supervision Advisory Committee for the Department of Corrections. Julie is also a community faculty member at Metro State University in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where she has taught Program Evaluation, Understanding and Using Research for the Practitioner, and Introduction to Human Services courses.