J.H. Sullivan

Julie Helen Sullivan is a passionate advocate for improved access to education for children in Africa. As president of a small not-for-profit organization, she sent over 1,000 U.S. volunteer educators overseas to address issues of poverty and inequity through education. She is currently an adjunct faculty member at Arizona State University, where she works on developing health programs for the poor in the US and elsewhere in the world. Julie has a doctorate in international development from Tulane University and she lives in Scottsdale, Arizona with her husband, Alan.

Julie is the daughter of the late Reverend Dr. Leon Sullivan, civil rights leader and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and Grace Banks Sullivan, the granddaughter of Captain Hansford (Hanks) Bayton. As a child, she and her brother and sister learned first-hand about the struggles of the poor through her parents’ work both in cultivating self-help principals among the poor both in the United States and in Africa. One of her earliest memories is of visiting Ghana with her family in 1976 and seeing a small girl with a beaming face walk out of a Pentecostal church dressed in a tattered dress and barefoot. The memory of that young girl, poor in material things, but wealthy in spirit, stuck with her and motivated her to desire to serve.

She has over 25 years' experience in the development and implementation of grassroots education and health programs in more than dozen sub-Saharan countries. Many of these projects focused on the welfare of the child, mothers, and school leavers and involved literacy development, primary education teacher training, HIV/AIDs prevention and conflict mitigation. Many of the former volunteers who participated in these projects have chosen to live and work in Africa, working on the ground to empower people at the grassroots level. As a result of the training provided by the volunteers, over 500,000 teachers in Africa have been impacted, who, in turn, have had a positive effect on the lives of millions, particularly among the most vulnerable.

Julie has won several awards for her work, including the 2009 World Association of Nongovernmental Organization’s Education award for innovation and leadership, the American Red Cross award for leadership in 2007, and she was honored in 2013 by the Arizona Historical Commission Centennial Legacy Project. She is a board member of Ballet Arizona and a member of Charter 100 of Phoenix, Arizona.

Her book about her great-grandfather is a deeply personal story. The life of Captain Hansford Bayton is a beacon of hope for her during times of crisis. A reminder for all of us that challenges are placed there to overcome and that the history of African Americans in this country is one of pride, fortitude and courage.