Julie Throckmorton has been a fundraiser and grant writer for non-profit and higher educational institutions for the past twenty-three years. She is passionate about connecting people’s visions and hopes for the future with the funding to make their dreams come to fruition. As a proponent of collaboration above competition, she believes that working together and supporting each other can make the greatest impact on society.
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At an early age, Julie fell in love with music, to the bewilderment of her family, none of whom, except for her grandmother, were musically inclined. To her parents’ credit, they nurtured her talents, supporting piano, saxophone, bassoon, and voice lessons. She later attended Westminster College in New Wilmington, PA, graduating magna cum laude with honors and receiving her bachelor’s degree in music education (where her principal instrument was the bassoon). While attending Westminster, she realized that she loved musicology, as it combined two of her greatest interests: music and history. While she loved student teaching—especially middle schoolers—she decided to attend West Virginia University to receive her master’s degree in music history. Research for her thesis, Acculturated Music in the Italian and Greek Communities of Ambridge, Pennsylvania would lead her down a path of interest in cultural anthropology and ethnomusicology.
Because of work on her thesis, Julie’s faculty mentor at WVU connected her with staff at the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area (ROS), which celebrates the southwestern Pennsylvania region’s industrial history, the landscape that fueled it, and the hardworking people who made it possible, linking the communities of the region through their shared cultural and industrial heritage. It was there that she was taught grant writing and spent her 10 years of employment at ROS helping traditional artists, cultural, and historical organizations identify and apply for grants.
After this, Julie continued her grant writing career, first in higher education at Washington and Jefferson College, and then as the head of fundraising for a Haitian hospital, Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti (HAS), before coming to Pittsburgh Technical College.
In her personal life, besides music, Julie’s other interests include gardening, baking, reading, learning how to sew, and exercise in any form (running, hiking, kayaking, biking, swimming, yoga, etc.) and spending time with her immediate and extended family, many of whom live near her. She has completed one marathon, three half-marathons, and two triathlons, albeit slowly (she was the last person to cross the finish line at the 2007 Pittsburgh Triathlon). She is passionate about the people and the country of Haiti, having volunteered and visited there since 2006 in addition to her employment for HAS. Furthermore, she has served on several committees at her church, including the Pastoral Nominating and Stewardship Committees, as well as having served as an Elder and a Deacon.
Julie lives in Baden, Beaver County, with her husband Dan, a professional percussionist and music teacher; her 11-year-old daughter Celia; cats Pip and Squeak; and a Goldendoodle named Mavis.
