Julie is a fourth year graduate student at UCCS in the Clinical Psychology PhD program with an emphasis in trauma. She received her BA in Psychology from the University of Northern Iowa in 2015 and her MS in Psychology from Arizona State University in 2018. Julie developed an interest in traumatic stress through her academic experiences working locally with survivors of sexual trauma, physical trauma, and human trafficking and working in Athens, Greece with asylum seekers. Under the mentorship of Dr. Benight, she has explored various lines of research including PTSD and marijuana use, community resilience and mental health outcomes, and the application of nonlinear dynamics to understand post-trauma recovery and resilience. She also completed her master’s thesis at Arizona State University which explored interpersonal trauma, intimate relationships, and perceptions about touch. 

Julie is primarily focused on recovery from sexual trauma, particularly in the context of intimate relationships. She is especially interested in exploring how individual and dyadic dynamics impact recovery from sexual trauma, individual wellbeing, intimacy, and relationship satisfaction.