The SC Coast is experiencing serious infrastructure challenges caused by climate change and development pressures. Rather than dealing with these problems, which have been years in the making, our state legislature wasted weeks of time and tax payer dollars debating if there should be a 6-week or total abortion ban, which exemptions should be considered legitimate, and if there needs to be law enforcement or just a second medical opinion in obgyn exam rooms.
It is time for Senate District 43 to have a Senator who believes medical decisions deserve as much privacy protection as corporate data, who is more interested in listening to the lived experiences of her constituents than a partisan directive, and who is committed to working across the aisle with anyone who wants to solve problems which actually improve the lives of South Carolinians.
Living, working, and serving in South Carolina since 1991, Julie has...
- Fought in the trenches for reproductive health, voting rights, ethics reform, and public education as a trained advocate for the Women's Rights and Empowerment Network (WREN) and Planned Parenthood; the President of the Charleston Area League of Women Voters, the Co-President of the SC League of Women Voters, and a Board Member of the League of Women Voters of the US; as well as the former Chair of the Lucy Beckham School Improvement Council and a founding board member of the Charleston Charter School for Math and Science.
- Examined and explained our region's major infrastructure planning and construction projects for SCDOT, different municipalities, and several regional planning organizations as the CEO of Civic Communications, LLC - the Lowcountry's go-to public information and outreach contractor for most of the major bridge construction and planning efforts for the past 25 years.
- Guided a $40 million dollar state agency budget improving high quality early childhood educational opportunities for more than 70,000 of SC's children and their caregivers as a legislative appointee to the SC First Steps Board of Trustees. Julie led the search committee for its current Executive Director, rose to the roles of Vice-Chair and Acting Chair, and received a commendation from the SC Senate and House in 2020 at the expiration of her term.
- Balanced community priorities and individual property rights as a Board Member and former President of the I'On Assembly (HOA). I'On is an award winning, neo-traditional, mixed-use planned neighborhood in Mount Pleasant with a property value of approximately $1.5 Billion dollars.
- Received hours of training and practice in the evaluation of risk and reward, deep listening, and group facilitation as an active small check Angel Investor, Charleston Metro Chamber mentor, Lowcountry Local First member, Charleston Community Circle leader, NCBI trainer, and mother of two college age sons.