She also enjoyed five inaugural seasons as the Assistant Director and Program Manager of the Taos Opera Institute in New Mexico, an intensive summer young artist program, where she developed the organization's original assets & brand and was also their very first Artist-In-Residence.
She spent four seasons as the Director of Digital & Audience Experience at Austin Opera, ushering in a period of customer-centric innovation that culminated in the creation of a new digital channel, two OPERA America grants, and a coveted place in the Bloomberg Philanthropies Digital Accelerator.
Julie was named the Producing Director of the Here Be Monsters Indie-Classical Festival, a project she nurtured for three years. One Ounce Opera (OOO) productions have been nominated for over 40 theatre awards, including seven personal B. Iden Payne nods for Outstanding Direction. Julie's forward-thinking, genre-defining spirit is perhaps most exemplified by the creation of one of the world's only micro-opera showcases, OOO's yearly Fresh Squeezed Ounce of Opera. She serves as the Executive & Artistic Director of OOO and the Creative Director for local Austin firm Zanate Marketing, where she and her husband grow awareness and brand identity for a diverse spectrum of clients through fractional project work. Her clients have spanned smart tech, precision navigation, nonprofit/social justice, performing arts organizations, and more.
Recently, Julie has presented live featured sessions at the Austin Lions Club (Cloak the Unfamiliar with the Familiar) and the Annual Texas Chambers of Commerce Executives Convention (How to Make Your Events Unmissable Without Reinventing the Wheel). An experienced speaker, her favorite topics are how to spark real connection, the power of the right kind of storytelling, how to turn a creative background into a successful communications career, and what tools young artists need to self-produce their dream projects.