Julie Atella

Julie conducts research and evaluation in the areas of corrections, human trafficking, juvenile justice, domestic violence and school-based mental health. Her recent work includes a multi-year evaluation of Minnesota’s Safe Harbor law to address commercial sexual exploitation, analysis and dissemination on how parental incarceration can affect youth development, and an evaluation of how schools can eliminate the school-to-prison pipeline through implementing the Minnesota Model. She leads a number research and program evaluation studies and has extensive experience developing logic models, implementing qualitative and qualitative data collection methods, conducting analysis, and disseminating findings. Her clients include government, foundation and community-based organizations. 

Julie has been at Wilder Research since 2008. She obtained her Master of Arts in criminal justice from Washington State University and a Bachelor of Arts in sociology/law and society from the University of California at Riverside. Julie is 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.

Journal articles

• Ruhland, E. L., Davis, L., Atella, J., & Shlafer, R. J. (2019). Externalizing behavior among youth with a current or formerly incarcerated parent. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology. doi.org/10.1177/0306624X19855317