Julie Smith-Morrow

Julie Smith-Morrow is Vice President of the Freestore Foodbank, working to build relationships and capacity of the member agency network of 350 pantries, soup kitchens and shelters serving the hungry in Northern Kentucky, Southeastern Indiana, and Southwestern Ohio. Her education focused on food crop improvement and she earned her B.S., summa cum laude, in Agronomy and Ph.D. in Plant Genetics from Texas Tech University. She served as Executive Director of Goodwill Industries in Lubbock Texas and has been active in anti-hunger advocacy for 16 years.

Julie and her husband John Morrow live in the East Row Historic Neighborhood of Newport, Kentucky. She is the mother of three sons and grandmother of four. Julie was elected as neighborhood representative for the East Row Historic Foundation in 2004 and to the Newport Independent Board of Education in 2007. She currently serves as Bishop's Warden at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Newport. Julie is a graduate of the inaugural class of WE Lead and Leadership Cincinnati Class XXXI.

Throughout her adult life, Julie has chosen to serve her community - in PTA while her children attended public school, then in volunteer roles in food banking, anti-hunger advocacy and church leadership, and for the past 11 years in a career as a non-profit leader. Julie became a candidate for the Newport School board because she was passionate about education as a means to success. She declared her candidacy for the Kentucky Senate because she has seen first hand that during this hard economy many Kentucky families are having a hard time making ends meet and she believes that is unacceptable. Julie is confident that her passion, broad experience and ability to find common ground can affect change benefitting all our citizens. She will work to create more jobs, ensure quality education for all children, and provide basic needs for all families in the 24th District and the commonwealth of Kentucky.