2004 POINT SCHOLARS

Julie Schell

Teachers College, Columbia University

Ed.D., Higher Education

Born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, Julie came out in college. Julie internalized messages from family and friends that she could not be gay and lead a fulfilling life. Finding solace only in her studies, she worked obsessively on her academics and held three jobs in order to stay in school. After graduating with a BS with Honors in Health Sciences and an MS in Counseling and Educational Psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno, Julie went on to direct a large student program at Stanford Law School. Working side by side with LGBT students, faculty and staff who were out and highly successful, Julie’s imagination for what was possible for her own future expanded. At Stanford, Julie initiated programs to foster the career development of hundreds students, with special attention to LGBT and ethnic minority groups. She has since held positions at some of America’s top universities including Columbia, Harvard, and Yale.

While pursuing her doctorate in higher education at Columbia, Julie conducted several research projects on LGBT issues and presented her scholarly work at venues across North America. She has given invited lectures on LGBT topics in higher education at Columbia University, Teachers College, and the Julliard School. Her paper, The Transgendered Professoriate: A New Frontier in Educational Research in the Public Interest, won a Scholar-Activist Award from the American Educational Research Association in 2006. Julie was also honored with an award for Outstanding Service to the Point Foundation Mentoring Program for her creation and leadership of that program from 2003-2007. Julie’s dissertation work was awarded the President’s Grant for Student Research in Diversity and the Spencer Foundation Research Training Grant at Teachers College. She is currently a post-doctoral research fellow at in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University, where she is researching innovative teaching and learning methods.

Believing strongly that her own college education saved her life, Julie hopes develop as many innovative pathways as possible for LGBT students to pursue their college dreams.