Julie Segal Walters

Julie Segal Walters is a community engagement specialist, social justice advocate, and children’s book author. She is the founder and President of Civic Action Strategies, a democracy, community outreach, and civic action consulting firm. She specializes in helping progressive organizations deepen their community engagement, participation, and advocacy strategies. Previously, Julie served as the Legislative Director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, where she built and led a coalition of more than sixty civil rights and civil liberties organizations. She has published widely in scholarly articles and books on religious liberty, democracy development, and civic engagement.

Julie is fluent in Spanish, has taught courses in nongovernmental organizations and lobbying as an Adjunct Professor at American University (Washington, DC), and has appeared as a commentator on religion and politics on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation,” Court TV, C-Span, and Univision. Her first children’s book, This is Not a Normal Animal Book (illustrated by Brian Biggs), released in 2017 from Simon and Schuster. She is also a PJ Library Sephardic Stories Initiative Fellow, writing about her family’s Sephardic Turkish heritage.

Julie has developed and led training programs on using children's books to spark life-long social action and community engagement, and has spoken at national librarian, teacher, and writer conferences. She holds a BA in Sociology and Spanish from Washington University, and a JD from Syracuse University College of Law. Julie lives with her family and high energy puppy in Washington, DC.