Julie has been a NODIP Site Coordinator for Thunder Bay and preceptored over 30 dietetic interns and nutrition students within food service, clinical, and research placements, receiving the Commitment to Clinical Teaching Award in 2016. Over the past 10+ years as a RD, Julie has worked in a variety of roles across the continuum of care in Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia: community care (diabetes), food service, acute clinical care, home care, outpatient (oncology, as well as employee family assistance program), research, and public health.

After obtaining her Master of Public Health degree from Lakehead University, Julie went on to work in program management roles with Dietitians of Canada and The University of British Columbia, both of which focused on creating a supportive food environment to assist with health and wellbeing outcomes for students. She has achieved the Project Management Professional and Change Management Practitioner designations, and currently works remotely from southeastern Ontario in consulting and project management, often with a system-level healthcare focus, with a northwestern Ontario company that provides services from a northern and rural perspective.

Laurie has been working as a RD since 2008 after completing the NODIP following a Bachelor of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Prince Edward Island. She has also completed a Master of Public Health from Lakehead University (2019). She has been privileged to work in a variety of practice settings in Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island including a family health team; hospital inpatients and outpatients; long-term care; preschool nutrition policy; community health research; sessional nutrition lecturer; and outpatient clinical prenatal, postpartum, and pediatrics. She is a past Board member of CHANCES Family Center and an active member of the PEI Basic Income Guarantee Working Group. She is also the current President of the Primary Care Dietitian Association (PCDA) and co-facilitator of the PCDA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.

Currently, Laurie works as a Project Coordinator with UPEI Health Research Network. She is also a private practitioner for clinical nutrition consulting in long-term care facilities on PEI. As a proud mixed-race Lebanese Canadian, she has been dedicated to gaining perspectives of diversity, equity, and inclusion in all areas of her life. She is also a co-founder and member of the newly formed Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) health research committee within the research network which works to uphold EDI practices across all health research activities in collaboration with various Island community organizations.