Our staff spotlight this week is Julia Smillie. Julia works at the Ginsberg Center as the Communications & Marketing Manager.
What is your professional background?
I’ve had a pretty varied professional journey. My degree is in Communications and Media Literacy. I’ve worked in PR and marketing, been an advice columnist, and I was a freelance writer and editor for many years before coming to Ginsberg. I also went back to school a few years ago to get my MFA in Creative Writing.
What is your job function at the Ginsberg Center?
As the Communications & Marketing Manager, I’m one of the few people who truly gets to work with everyone at Ginsberg to help support their work. It’s a real privilege to have those connections with everyone. I think of my main role as that of a storyteller. It’s my job to help identify stories about the amazing work Ginsberg is doing and figure out how and where to best share those.
What is one of your favorite projects you have worked on at the Ginsberg Center?
I’m proud of developing our Ginsberg Is campaign a few years ago, which provided us with some cohesiveness and unity in a marketing sense. I’m also proud of the way we adapted to the pandemic by ramping up our social media presence in a mindful and meaningful way to stay in contact with our academic partners, community partners, and U-M students and colleagues. We’re very aware of the double-edged sword social media can be and are constantly evaluating how we should be using it. I enjoy that challenge very much.
What are your social change interests in your personal life?
Prison reform is close to my heart. I volunteered at the Huron Valley Women’s Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti until the pandemic shut down all outside programs. I’m also deeply invested in women’s rights, LGBTQIA issues, and addiction recovery issues.
What helped you during the pandemic (object, cooking, food, TV)
At first it helped that I’m a bit of a homebody and introvert so I thought it was going to be easy for me. That didn’t really stop me from feeling crazy, though. I’m an unabashed fan of TV, so I’ve watched a lot of great shows and although I found it hard to concentrate on reading early in the pandemic, I’m getting back in the groove of that. I’m also knitting a sweater that I keep messing up and having to restart that has clearly become some sort of symbol of pandemic life.