District 7930 - District Governor

Julia has been in schools all of her life. Starting in the fall of 1960 as a first grade student until now. For the last 30 years, however she has been in the role of teacher, coach, administrator and mentor. She served as an assistant superintendent and the coordinator for curriculum in school districts in Massachusetts. Julia has also been a middle school principal, a college professor, a high school English teacher and debate coach and a middle school speech and drama teacher. She is currently working at the Massachusetts Department of Education as a Manager for School and District Intervention within the Division of Accountability and Targeted Assistance.

Julia joined the Rotary Club of Amesbury, MA in February of 1997. Her sponsor was Brad Ford. Within months, she was asked to become the Sergeant-at-Arms, the first step on the path to the president. In addition, she worked on all of the fund raising activities, assisted with adopt-a-spot, attended Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) and hosted Ambassadorial Scholars. Julia was elected President of the Amesbury Club in 2001-2002. After serving as president, she was asked to return to PETS and train incoming presidents and it was there that she was encouraged by future presidents to think about becoming a District Governor some day. Julia is currently a member of the Rotary Club of Danvers, MA.

At the district level, Julia worked with seniors in high school and trained them to return to RYLA as “senior alums,” who ran the weekend program, for three years. During the 2003-04, she served as the Inbound Chair for Ambassadorial Scholars. Julia has also served as a Host Counselor for Ambassadorial Scholars and a Youth Exchange student. She is thrilled with the positive response from our clubs regarding the expansion of Youth Exchange this year! In addition, Julia was the District Trainer from 2004-2006 and has served as an Assistant Governor. Most recently, Julia was selected to serve as Chairman for the Presidents Elect Training Seminar (PETS) in March 2009.

The daughter of a career military man (USAF), Julia was born in Xenia, Ohio and immediately began seeing the United States and the world. The oldest of two bothers and a sister, she lived in seven states and a foreign country (Izmir, Turkey) before graduating from Fayetteville (AR) High School. She received her B.S.E. and her M.Ed. from the University of Arkansas and her Ed.D. from Indiana University. Julia enjoys gardening, reading, traveling and most of all learning. She is married to Steve McKenzie and they live on Pawtuckaway Lake in New Hampshire with their two dogs, Alec and Libby. Steve and Julia also have two grandsons, River and Finn.

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