Julie Schwartz was born in Philadel­phia, where she met a Cana­di­an and, forty years ago, moved to Toron­to and learned to spell her mar­ried name with a ​“zed.” Julie earned a Mas­ters and Bach­e­lor of Arts from The Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia. Her mater­nal occu­pa­tion as the moth­er of a child with an ASD was devot­ed to under­stand­ing Joel’s thoughts, feel­ings, and actions, and trans­lat­ing him to the com­mu­ni­ty. Now retired, Julie active­ly pur­sues out­door adven­tures, con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion, and vol­un­teer opportunities.