After graduating from Brown, Julia returned to Kenya to work with the Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund on carbon storage assessments for other indigenous forests. She then worked for three years in the Environmental Management Department for the eThekwini Municipality in Durban, South Africa, before enrolling in the environmental science Ph.D. program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is now working on her dissertation research, studying floodplain restoration projects and water supply improvement in the Baviaanskloof, South Africa.