Julie Batten

Background

About Julie Batten

Julie Batten is founder of the Glass House Shelter Project, a grassroots organization that serves the multipurpose of bringing college reading & writing courses into homeless shelters, as well as providing employment for its participants through the GlassWorks arm of the organization and training for teachers through the GlassGreenhouse initiative. Her TEDx talk at Salem State University on "Unbelongingness & the Self-Perpetuating Cycle of Shame" has received over 16K views to date. As past Director of Development for three different Boston-based nonprofits, Batten has overseen all aspects of fundraising, including grant writing, corporate sponsorship and individual gifts. As an educator, Batten teaches a myriad of writing courses, including grant writing, project development journalistic writing and healthcare communications, etc, at the following institutions: Brown University, Brandeis University, University of Massachusetts Boston Honors College, Bryant University and Salem State University. As a social activist, she is also an honorary Partner at the Center for Social Policy, John McCormack Graduate School at the University of Massachusetts Boston. A lifetime learner, Batten has recently become certified as an end-of-life (EOL) doula, with the purpose of becoming an even better listener and being further equipped to help students deal with the many iterations of their own loss. Whether that means a general recovery from that which we all lost during the pandemic or something more tertiary and individual to that event, such as loss of income, health, or housing, Batten acknowledges that receiving appropriate bereavement support can make all the difference to student success. As a public speaker, Batten has lectured on her work with the homeless at Notre Dame University, Davidson College, Harvard University, Radcliffe College, AWP and Regis College, been interviewed on the radio talk show "Trending with Josh Arnold," and received mention in The Boston Globe, The Salem Evening News and The Connecticut Herald. She has appeared as a participant on Salem's Moth Radio Hour and read her work at the Cornelius Street Cafe in New York. Her anthology on shame that was co-edited with Michael Bondhus is forthcoming. Besides winning awards for her own writing and teaching, Batten's students (both housed and unhoused) have also won awards, spoken on panels and been published in national literary magazines. In her spare time, Batten is an avid cyclist, gardener and portrait artist who lives with her partner and their two dogs in Rhode Island.