Meet the Board

With this issue, we are beginning a new series,  Meet the Board, intended to introduce you to the Members of the Branch’s Board.

For the first entry, two branch presidents, one sitting and one former, agreed to dispense with formality in this profile, in which Kathy Wagenknecht patched together clues about Julie Mackaman from publicly available sources and, blushes Julie, “made me sound so much cooler than I am in real life.” 

Meet Julie Mackaman

by Kathy Wagenknecht


Julie was born in 1951 in some small town in Iowa—they’re all about alike. She began speaking in complete, and multi-clause sentences before the age of 1. By the time she was 5, she was sending well-reasoned Letters to the Editor and fan letters to Mitch Miller.

After graduating from high school at an undisclosed age, she studied at the University of Kansas, earning several degrees. At some point, she also lived in California, got married to Rico and had a son, Cole. She recently got a puppy.

For some period of time, she has worked in the film industry, swearing she has had NOTHING to do with pornography or animated Dungeons and Dragons.

An avid outdoors-woman, Julie has over-oxygenated her brain by swimming in cold lakes and tropical oceans at dawn. She also skis, rides bicycles, and performs on the unicycle.

She first joined AAUW while in California, primarily to have some literate people with whom she could discuss books. Since moving to Vermont, she has been active in the Bennington Branch, serving as, among other things, President and currently, Secretary.

Still verbose, Julie is often tasked with writing proposals, testimonies, get well cards, and program descriptions.