julie barton, ph.d.

Julie is passionate about the power of story to enact positive social change and believes that quality children’s literature can change the world. Her 12-year international career includes roles in fundraising, marketing, customer service, and management. Most recently she was at Tandem, Partners in Early Learning for almost six years, leading the organization through a time of expansion, a rebranding process, and as Development Director doubled the budget.

With a PhD in Literature and a MA in Children’s Literature, she has publications in The Journal of Children’s Literature Studies and Crossing Textual Boundaries in International Children’s Literature, and has presented at a number of international conferences. She taught at universities in the United Kingdom and Germany, and in London served for four years on the UK chapter of the International Board on Books for Young People (and is currently a committee member for USBBY, the US chapter).

She has spoken about the importance of children’s literature, diversity in children’s books, and early childhood education around the country, from locally at the Bay Area Book Festival to NLC’s National Convention in Houston. Her talk “Why Progressives Should Care about Kids' Books” was presented to 300+ leaders from around the country at NLC’s 2018 convention, and explored the role of diversity and representation in children's literature, and discussed why what we learn the youngest stays with us the longest.  

A 2016 Leadership San Francisco Fellow with the Chamber of Commerce and 2019 Social Entrepreneurship Fellow with StartingBloc, she is a lifelong learner. She is involved with New Leaders Council, the nation’s largest and oldest progressive training organization – after being a 2015 NLC-SF Fellow, she has served on the NLC-SF Executive Board for four years, is co-Chair of the National NLC Advancement Committee, and is on the NLC National Programs Committee. A skilled facilitator, she uses strengths-based frameworks to engage groups in leadership development, has helped develop the LEAD curriculum for NLC, and serves as a LEAD Trainer for NLC Institutes across the country. However, Julie is determined to never be too old (or too busy!) to read books written for children and to be involved in the fight for educational equity for our youngest learners.