About

Julie Bates MacGillis is a biracial consultant respected for her design and facilitation of powerful programs and initiatives that advance equity and inclusion through values-based design. Mission-driven and community oriented, Julie has placed racial equity and community engagement at the center of her work for over 20 years.

For more than a decade, Julie was instrumental in the work of Intermedia Arts, an organization nationally-recognized for its work at the intersection of creativity, community, and social change. As Director of Equity and Public Programs, Julie developed an equity framework for the organization and led a multi-year initiative to advance racial equity and inclusion in organizational decision-making, policy, and practice. As Associate Director, Julie directed daily operations for five years while developing and deepening many of the organization’s community-engaged practices: regularly facilitating community listening sessions, leading internal program evaluation, developing practices for equity in hiring, mediating community conflict, and engaging in more than 150 community partnerships and collaborations.

From 2010-2014, Julie directed the Creative Community Leadership Institute, a regional, cross-sector leadership training for social change. She has designed and facilitated leading grant programs for underrepresented writers and spoken word poets, and is the former director of the Queer Voices reading series, one of the longest-running LGBT literary series' in the nation. Julie has led major organizational initiatives supported by ArtPlace and the Bush Foundation, and was selected for the Bush Foundation's 2015 Community Creativity Cohort. She was the keynote speaker for the DeVos Institute of Arts Management's NextGenII convening, and was awarded a Joyce Grant by Americans for the Arts Professional Development Fund for Emerging Leaders of Color. 

An innovative thinker dedicated to impact and sustainability, Julie works with organizations, individuals, companies, and foundations to connect values with actions, implementing and embedding equity, inclusion, access, and organizational values throughout their work and practice with depth and integrity.