Julie Holland was appointed to the Kansas City Brownfields Commission by Mayor Quinton Lucas. The Brownfields Commission was created by City ordinance to help redevelop brownfields and conserve public resources applied to brownfield projects. Brownfields are any vacant or underused properties, mostly commercial or industrial, where reuse is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination. Brownfields pose health risks and cause blight and economic and environmental burdens, especially in communities of color and urban areas.
Julie leads the Parent Leadership Training Institute-Kansas City, an initiative that supports a healthy democracy by training parents to become leading advocates for children. She is also the Kansas City regional director of the Urban Leaders Fellowship, a national public policy and community impact summer fellowship for early-to mid-career professionals. Previously, Julie served as education advisor to former Kansas City Mayor Sly James where she authored and spearheaded the development of 15+ plans, federal applications, and community reports that propelled initiatives with new funding or a new strategy, including the People Plan for $30M grant for HUD Choice Neighborhood and $300M tax plan to expand access to affordable, high-quality pre-K.
Julie earned a B.S. from Oklahoma State University, M.P.A from Syracuse University, and a doctorate in law and policy from Northeastern University. She also worked at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central New York, and congressional offices in Oklahoma and Washington, D.C.