Julie started youth and community work in 1986 and, from 1992, went onto teaching adults English for Speakers of Other Languages. In 2002 she began working in the heritage sector and in 2017 started work in adult social care. Julie has written about the Bengali Language Movement, The World in the East End at the V&A Museum of Childhood and a bi-lingual play The Altab Ali Story, which was dramatised in the Season of Bangla Drama. In 2000 she helped set up the Swadhinata Trust and, in 2017, received the Award for Outstanding Service to the Community.