2023 Alaska Afterschool Champion: Julie Wild Curry

Julie started her work in Skagway, Alaska as the Community Education director in 1982. Community education included running after school and summer education programs that were supported by a State a Community School grant. In 1987, Julie and her husband moved to Fairbanks, Alaska with their family and Julie began volunteering at the Resource Center for Parents and Children on the Parent Warm Line, answering parent calls, and supporting the mission of child abuse prevention. Soon after her youngest child turned three, Julie was hired to work part time doing community outreach and home visits eventually becoming full time through 1999. Julie also started volunteering in schools at the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District.  She was part of the first advisory board for the middle school’s 21st Century Community Learning Center grant application. The FNSBSD received this grant and began to apply for a much larger 21st CCLC grant to serve all the schools in the district, which the district received. Julie was encouraged to apply for the position of Community School director, which included Community School programming along with starting all the 21st CCLC programming at schools and became the new director in the fall of 1999. During Julie’s tenure at FNSBSD she expanded afterschool and summer programming for students and fostered the professional growth of hundreds of afterschool educators.

Julie was President of the Alaska Association for Community Education (AACE) and as a volunteer led organization was part of organizing the yearly AACE conference, supporting Community School professionals across the State, which included afterschool programs. Julie was an Afterschool Alliance Afterschool Ambassador and a White-Riley-Peterson Fellow. Her WRP Fellowship project was to help start the Alaska Afterschool Network. Julie was a founding member of the Network’s Advisory Committee and has served on multiple Network workgroups.

Julie is now semi-retired, traveling with her husband of 42 years and enjoying grandchildren and family time!