Julie Akins is a happy mom of two children, proud grandmother of two more and a Pacific Northwest Native. She lead the newsroom of KOBI Television as its News Director, taught in the Communications Department at Southern Oregon University and covered City Beat for the Ashland Daily Tidings. Akins formerly worked as a staff investigative television journalist in San Diego, Tampa and Seattle. She is a former Poynter Institute Fellow and worked with the Center for Investigative Reporting. (Frontline, Pro Publica).
She is a passionate advocate for equity and has served as a community organizer for the rights of immigrants, LGBTQ and people of color. She founded an organization to assist unsheltered families and continues to write and research on the subject.
In her spare time she is a long distance hiker and lover of nature and the environment.