Julie Gelo

A mother of thirteen children, leading national advocate, executive director of a NOFAS Washington, outstanding spokesperson – Julie Gelo wears many hats and is a fascinating personality. NOFAS salutes Julie for her courage, strength and perseverance and honors her through this Hall of Fame.

Julie and her husband Lynn live in Bothell, Washington, with the youngest seven children and have been licensed foster parents for the past thirteen years. Over the years, Julie and Lynn have fostered and adopted a combined total of twenty two children. Currently, she and her husband live with four adopted children and three children of whom they are guardians. These seven children along with her oldest biological daughter have all been diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome or related conditions.

Julie recently started NOFAS Washington, an affiliate of NOFAS. Along with her colleague Christie Connors, Julie has been successful in advocating for the issue at the international, national and state levels. She has worked on several programmatic developments along with NOFAS and other leading agencies in this field. Julie is one of the four founders and an intricate player in NOFAS’ Circle of Hope (COH), a nationwide support network of birth mothers of children with FASD. Julie continues to uphold her strength while diligently working to help NOFAS in making the COH one of the strongest support networks for birth mothers across the United States. This year marked the first official retreat for the COH. The success of the retreat was immensely impacted due to Julie’s presence and wise words. Julie recently lent her knowledge and years of experience to the attendees of North Carolina’s “Hope for Women in Recovery Summit: Understanding and Addressing the Impact of Pre-Natal Alcohol Exposure.” This two day summit, sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and hosted by NOFAS, was attended by hundreds from the North Carolina government, substance abuse provider community and women in recovery who are at risk for having or who may have had a child with FASD. The attendees of the Summit were fortunate to receive first hand knowledge from Julie’s life experiences.

Julie has been a Family Advocate for the Washington State Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Diagnostic and Prevention Network core team at the University of Washington for over a decade. She is also a member of the Master Training Team for the Foster Parent Training Institute with the Department of Social and Health Services/Division of Licensed Resources.

Julie and her children participated in the preparation and filming of “Journey Through The Healing Circle” and helped prepare the video study guides for this this two-hour series of videos that was aired on PBS channels throughout the Pacific Northwest and Canada and made it to the finals for a Regional Emmy Award. Julie was also featured on a SAMHSA production, “Recovering Hope – Mothers speak out about Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders”, a videotape that presents an intimate and evocative hour-long look at mothers and families of children affected by FASD.

A highlight of Julie’s personal and professional accomplishments has been organizing the annual FASD family summer camp. The first camp was held three years back out of which a group called “FASt Friends,” an FASD Family and Community Support Network, was formed. NOFAS’ staff participated at this year’s FASD camp as part of NOFAS’ collaborations initiative with several of its affiliates. To view pictures from this year’s summer camp, please visit: www.nofas.org/FASDSummerCampWashingtonState.htm

Julie Gelo is a true inspiration to birth families, adoptive and foster parents, social activists, spokespersons and many others who would like to make a difference to another person’s life. NOFAS is extremely delighted for the longstanding relationship that it shares with Julie and wishes her and her family the best for the future.

For more on NOFAS Washington, please visit: www.nofaswa.org

To order a free copy of the Recovering Hope video, please click here: store.health.org/catalog/productDetails.aspx?ProductID=16955