Julie Walker, Grants Manager for MSPP
![[Picture of
Julie]](../staff/julie.gif)
A native of England, Julie was an undergraduate geography student at the University of Leicester when she met her husband, Bob, who was there on a year of post-graduate study. The couple returned to the U.S., and Julie worked at the University of Oregon bookstore while her husband finished his Ph.D. in Philosophy. Julie then returned to school to complete her geography degree. When she finished her studies, Julie went to work in management and budget at the University of Oregon and from there moved to other departments within the system until she came to the ISE. Julie had dreamed of being a recreational planner when she was an undergraduate student, and her long-range plans include returning to the UO to earn a master's degree in planning.
Julie and Bob have a daughter, Briony, who is currently an elementary school student in the Eugene public school system. The family shares its home with two dogs, a three-legged black lab and a Shetland sheepdog, and with a cat they rescued from a wild existence and tamed. They also are probably the only people in Eugene with a termite colony they have raised for twenty years. The original termite inhabitants were collected from their Amazon university housing apartment, and they have maintained the colony in a glass termitarium ever since. The Walkers also raise bees, and harvest the honey for their family's use, and are acquiring an ant colony by slowly gathering the ants which invade their home in the fall and spring. Julie's at-home title is "home pet technician," a job which she shares with her hobbies of quilting and cooking. On weekends, the Walker family often can be found camping in the woods around Oregon.
About her work with the MSPP, Julie says she particularly likes "seeing how the technical assistant's eyes light up when they talk about their experiences in the Pacific islands." Julie manages to make sense of the seemingly endless requirements of the federal granting agencies, private funding sources, the university and the Oregon state system. With skill and perseverance, she weaves a path through the maze of the different regulations and requirements for each entity. Julie does this with a grace and calmness which is impressive to those of us who are privileged to work with her.
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