Although swimming before she could walk and raised on the West Coast of Florida, Julie did not become certified as a diver until her mid-40s.  From that time on, it was one of her two passions and she went on to become a PADI IDC Staff Instructor and credentialed to teach over 25 specialties.  In 2011, she retired from academic medicine but continued to combine her interest in diving with experience gained in her former career, serving as the shop’s Instructor Trainer for all DAN courses.  She has been diving around the world, sometimes in unique places such as Zanzibar or with the Great White Sharks of Seal Island  in South Africa, but puts the deep dives in Truk Lagoon and the liveaboard, Dewi Nusantara, in Indonesia at the top of her list in incredible dive experiences.  Her second passion is painting and she often dives with a camera to capture unique underwater scenes that inspire some of her award-winning oil paintings.