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Meet Julie Anderson
Julie grew up with parents who were well acquainted with the health care field. At the hospital a mile from her home, her mom worked as a registered nurse and her dad was in hospital administration. Her older brother and sister and Julie all had part-time jobs at the hospital through their teens.
Julie knew she wanted to work in a health-related field, and as a young girl she had hopes of becoming a doctor. She went on many visits with her mom delivering Meals on Wheels to seniors, and as her mom transitioned out of the clinical setting into home health care, Julie accompanied her on those visits from time to time.
Growing up in a neighborhood in the heart of Chicago was ideal. She loved living in a neighborhood where everyone walked to work, church and school and all the kids played together up and down the street. While this may sound like small-town America, it was actually a very diverse neighborhood only blocks away from high-stress neighborhoods. There were over 50 languages spoken at her high school. It was this diversity and watching her parents tenderly care for patients as part of their vocation and for those around them that shaped her heart to care about people. She knew that she would one day pursue a career in public health.
From a young age, Julie was often participating in or watching sports. (Go Cubs!). In high school, Julie found her niche running track and playing volleyball. She began to think that somehow health care could be combined with fitness.
She earned her BS from Springfield College in Massachusetts (health fitness) and then spent a year working at a hospital wellness center in Chicago. In 1991, she moved to the Bay Area and started working at Stanford for the Health Improvement Program — where she has been working ever since. In 2001, the seed that had started growing so many years earlier took root and Julie went back to school for her Masters in Public Health from San Jose State.
Julie currently is the manager of the BeWell Wellness Profile program. She does BeWell Advising along with HIP wellness coaching and has co-taught Weight Management classes. She enjoys doing fitness assessments and wellness coaching where she can really help people make a behavior change. Julie has also been part of Living Strong Living Well, a strength-training program for cancer patients and survivors at the local YMCAs, since the program began in 2002. The participants in the program are very inspiring and it is rewarding for Julie to see many lives transformed as a result of the program.
Julie knows that people often know what to do but just need support getting on track. She has developed deeper compassion for the experience of others because of her own life experience; as a mom in her 40s, Julie juggles work, marriage and the raising of a spirited 4-year-old. She is not always successful, but wouldn’t trade her life for any other. She enjoys yoga, running, strength training, rock climbing with her husband, singing and dancing with her daughter, and reading a good book.