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Julie began her career working with adolescents as a college admissions counselor, where she visited more than 170 high schools in three months, speaking with prospective students and their parents. Learning how to manage a young person's anxiety, provide valuable information, and remain present and welcoming—all at the same time—were essential skills for the job.

In 1991, while working in a residential facility for adjudicated delinquents, Julie saw firsthand the impact of youth falling through the cracks. She learned the importance of showing up, paying attention, and listening carefully to what young people are trying to tell us.

That lesson took on new meaning when Julie became a sexual abuse investigator for Hamilton County, Ohio. In that role, she conducted more than 3,000 forensic interviews of alleged child victims and testified in court countless times. Over the course of her career, Julie has worked in child protection for 15 years, including 9½ years as a training director, supporting and training the staff who do this work every day. She also served as the Executive Director of a developing family justice center serving children and families experiencing domestic violence.

Julie has learned repeatedly from the children she has interviewed—and from the mistakes she has made along the way. Everything that followed has been built on what those thousands of interviews and years of experience have taught her: how we listen, how we ask questions, and how we structure the process matters.

She has spent the years since teaching that process to the professionals who need it most—including investigators, prosecutors, caseworkers, forensic interviewers, advocacy center staff, medical providers, and clinicians. As an independent trainer and consultant since 1997, Julie has trained professionals nationally and internationally, working alongside dedicated professionals who want to make a difference in the lives of children and their families.

Julie still conducts forensic interviews. She currently serves as a contract forensic interviewer for the Northern Kentucky Children's Advocacy Center and Family & Children's Place Child Advocacy Center. She also routinely participates in peer review because the standards she teaches are standards to which she continues to hold herself.

Julie had the honor of co-authoring the ABA’s Handbook on Questioning Children: A Linguistic Perspective, 3rd edition, with Anne Graffam Walker, PhD.

Julie holds a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree and is a Licensed Independent Social Worker (LISW) in the State of Ohio. She is a past board member of the Association of Professionals Solving the Abuse of Children (APSAC) and continues to contribute to projects relating to forensic interviewing for APSAC. She has served as a faculty member for APSAC's Forensic Interview Clinics for many years and was a ChildFirst faculty member in both Indiana and Ohio.

In 1997, Julie coordinated and implemented the Forensic Training Institute for The Childhood Trust. She has also contributed to and co-authored several national and statewide forensic interview curricula and publications.

Julie was named a Fellow of the Association of Professionals Solving the Abuse of Children in 2024. In 2015, she received the FBI Director's Community Leadership Award.

Today, Julie brings together decades of experience in forensic interviewing, child protection, child abuse investigation, training, consultation, and peer review to support the professionals entrusted with responding to children and families.