Julie is a thought leader in online learning and global collaboration, innovator, teacherpreneur, keynote speaker and author. She has a 30+ years career in higher education and K-12 schools. She worked in international schools for fifteen years as an educational technology leader across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Her passion is for online global collaboration and as Director of Learning Confluence and Founder of Flat Connections she designs and manages award-winning online projects for all K-12 levels and customizes learning experiences for educators including virtual courses and live events. She has presented keynotes and workshops at conferences around the world and designed and implemented her own conferences that bring learners of all ages (educators and students) together for challenge-based problem-solving.

Julie is the Senior Education Technology Advisor, Learning and Teaching Futures Portfolio at the University of Southern Queensland. Prior to taking on this position at UniSQ, she worked at Charles Sturt University designing and teaching courses in the School of Information Studies, Master of Education (Knowledge Networks and Digital Innovation) degree. In the Charles Sturt u!magine Innovation Unit, Julie was Quality Learning and Teaching Academic Lead for the Faculty of Arts and Education. She was the Open Pathways Design Lead, where she designed and facilitated open learning courses.

Julie is an Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE, 2010), a Google Certified Innovator (2014), and recipient of the ISTE 'Making IT Happen' Award (2013) and the ISTE Online Learning Award (2007). She is the author of two books: Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds, and ‘The Global Educator: Leveraging Technology for Collaborative Learning and Teaching’. Julie completed a PhD at the University of Southern Queensland in 2019 with a research focus on online global collaborative educators and pedagogical change.