Julia Bowen
Principal
Prospect Leadership Group
Julia Bowen partners with leaders and school districts who seek to grow their impact and the impact of their organizations. She has a passion for empowering leaders to build on their strengths and vision to create more effective leadership teams, inclusive school communities, and transformative learning environments. Through Prospect Leadership Group, she supports a variety of leader and district needs, including leadership coaching, organizational consulting, board development, and strategic planning. She has a special interest in supporting school leaders new to their roles. Since 2018, she has been developing and leading the New Leaders Program for the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association, a program that has served over 55 new charter school leaders during the first three years of their job as Executive Director. Building on a background in both strategy consulting and teaching high school, Julia was the founding Executive Director of Berkshire Arts & Technology Charter Public School (BART) in Adams, Massachusetts in 2003, where she led the growth of the nationally recognized middle and high school that serves 360 students from 15 different communities. Under her leadership, BART built a program that attracted a more diverse student body than the local sending districts across multiple dimensions - race, gender identity, socio-economic status, and diverse learning needs - with stronger academic and college placement results than the local districts as well. During her tenure, BART was named among the top high schools in Massachusetts by US News and World Report and was recognized by EPIC, a program funded by the US DOE’s Teacher Incentive Fund, for achieving significant growth in student outcomes. Julia left BART in 2017, but returned as a parent in 2020, when her two sons enrolled in the middle school. Julia has served on a number of local and statewide boards and committees, supporting k-14 education broadly and charter schools specifically. Currently, she is the Chair of the Board of Trustees at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, MA, and a School Committee Member for her local district public school, Mt Greylock Regional School District. She earned a BA from Dartmouth College in Mathematics, an MA in Organizational Development and Leadership from Fielding Graduate University, certification from Cornell University in Diversity and Inclusion, and is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) through the International Coaching Federation (ICF). She also earned certification as a mediator through Mediation Works, Inc., as an evaluator of the Leadership Circle Profile, and as a Critical Friends Coach through the National School Reform Faculty.
LinkedIn: julia-bowen-maod-pcc-55135112