Julia is the lead teacher for our Sweet Gum Upper Elementary community. The 2024-2025 school year marks her eleventh year guiding clever Montessori Elementary children (and it's her seventh year at Aidan). In addition to teaching, she is a founding member of the Washington Montessori Institute Alumni and Friends and an enthusiastic member of AMI-EAA, a member-run professional affiliate of Association Montessori Internationale elementary guides and trainers providing a supportive community for the exchange of ideas that promote the principles of Montessori education. She is closely connected to Montessori trained teachers and trainers around the globe, participating in professional development conferences to learn new skills like knitting, felting, and calligraphy, and observing in the classrooms of thriving Montessori schools from Portland, Oregon to Chennai, India.

Julia and her husband (Red Oak Lead Teacher, Hamed Isaza) are big fans of camping. Most summers they enjoy plotting road trips to hike, swim, fish, and explore various national and state parks and connect with friends and family along the way. They have driven together from D.C. to Banff, AB, Canada, and recently backpacked the Pacific Northwest coast in Olympic National Park, WA. Julia enjoys sharing her travel and nature stories with the Upper Elementary community, and doing a bit of camping with the children too. Most recently, she is the adoring mother of a toddler and she's preparing herself to support him as he begins his own Montessori journey.