Julia Blanchard, she/her/hers

Julia Blanchard (she/her/hers) is a Graduate Assistant for Community and Alumni Engagement. In this role, Julia assists in community engagement programming for Gephardt such as Engage STL and focuses on event management and outreach to the WashU and greater STL community.

Julia is a 3-2 Student at WashU completing the undergrad in May 2024 with a major in Global Studies and minors in Chinese language and Applied Linguistics. Julia is continuing her time at WashU with one more year for the Master of Social Work with a concentration in social impact leadership and a specialization in management graduating in May of 2025. In undergrad, Julia was a member of the Taylor Family Center STARS program which was where she first found her love for finding ways to support missions that are important to her. Julia credits TFC for putting her on the path to getting her MSW and looking at how she can engage with St. Louis. 

In addition to the work at Gephardt, Julia is founding a new nonprofit called Collaboration STL. Collaboration STL’s main goal is to develop a new queer safe space in St. Louis that will be a year-round support for the queer and allied community as well as provide a venue for local LGBTQ+ nonprofits’ events and programming. By facilitating these events in one space, Collaboration STL will strengthen the LGBTQ+ community of St. Louis and expand the community’s ability to develop their resources, events, and programming.

Julia is also a Tower Grove Pride organizer. This includes logistics with vendors and sponsors and events planning for an estimated attendance of over 80,000 people during the last weekend of September. Additionally, Julia is the 2024 Gala Coordinator for a local reproductive rights group in the area.

As a member of the LGBTQ+ community and an avid advocate for reproductive rights, Julia was drawn to Gephardt for its focus on a more collaborative St. Louis to achieve better civic and community engagement. She loves this city and wants to learn how to be more effective and mindful of the events she works on. She believes that there is so much to learn from Gephardt’s incredible community outreach and inclusive events that encourage all of us to think more critically about how we can make an impact. 

Outside of school, Julia is a member of the WashU Powerlifting team and is training to return to Collegiate Nationals this year. Julia also enjoys biking in Forest Park while listening to true crime and gossip podcasts.