PennPraxis

Julie Donofrio is the Managing Director of PennPraxis, where she oversees Praxis’s operations and communications, and leads projects focused on community engagement, capacity building, evaluation, and neighborhood planning.  Julie joined PennPraxis after working as a planner and urban designer with leading design firms on the east and west coasts, starting with EDAW (now part of the multinational engineering firm, AECOM) in San Diego, and Wallace, Roberts & Todd (WRT), practicing in both the San Francisco and Philadelphia offices.  Julie was responsible for leading large-scale, community-engaged, planning and urban design plans in San Diego, Long Beach, Oakland, Houston, and Denton, Texas, and housing-focused plans in Meridian, MS, Roanoke, VA, and Philadelphia.  Julie earned Master’s degrees in City & Regional Planning and Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design and also teaches in the Department of City and Regional Planning, serving as the faculty coordinator of the first-year planning studio, and teaches an elective course on community-engaged design in practice.  Julie received a Bachelors degree in History and Spanish from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC.