School Ambassador Fellowship Awarded to Julie Richardson

Associate Professor Julie Richardson, a RIC alumna and school psychologist at the Henry Barnard School, was awarded a School Ambassador Fellowship by the U.S. Department of Education in 2018-2019 and now an extended fellowship spanning 2019-2020. Richardson is the first school psychologist ever selected for this prestigious fellowship.

The School Ambassador Fellowship was created to improve the education of students by involving educators in the development and implementation of national education policy.

"School staff members provide vital leadership in classrooms and schools, but too often lack opportunities to contribute their knowledge to the development of education policy on a broader scale," stated the Department of Education.

In 2018-2019 Richardson worked part-time for the Department of Education while remaining at Henry Barnard School. In September 2019 she moved to Washington, D.C. for an extended year-long residency. 

As a full-time federal employee, Richardson has an office within the Department of Education where she works with department leaders and a cohort of other outstanding teachers, principals, counselors, social workers and school staff members on education and policy issues, many of which focus on areas she is passionate about, such as school safety, mental health initiatives in schools and protection of trafficking victims.

"I was also thrilled to host the first school psychologist roundtable at the Department of Education," she said, "where we dialogued about comprehensive school mental health programs. My hope is that by bringing the voice and value of school psychologists to the table, it will help resolve the shortages in our profession. I also hope that when I look back on these incredible two years, I will be able to say, 'I had an impact on creating safer, more supportive schools for our students.'"

Julie Richardson earned her M.A. in educational counseling and her C.A.G.S. in school psychology at RIC in 2010 and her C.A.G.S. in advanced counseling at RIC in 2016.