Meet Your Innovation Guide:
Juli doesn’t just teach innovation—she lives it.
From co-founding Playable Media, backed by the Knight Foundation, to launching Wildcards.io, an ed-tech startup selected for the AT&T Aspire Accelerator, Juli has navigated the highs and pivots of the innovation journey.
Her journey through competitive funding, tool-building, and strategic reinvention fuels her practical, no-fluff approach to innovation.
From co-founding Playable Media, backed by the Knight Foundation, to launching Wildcards.io, an ed-tech startup selected for the AT&T Aspire Accelerator, Juli has navigated the highs and pivots of the innovation journey.
Her journey through competitive funding, tool-building, and strategic reinvention fuels her practical, no-fluff approach to innovation.
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"I believe in galvanizing and re-energizing teams."
Juli is a dynamic innovator whose journey from journalism to instructional design has been fueled by a passion for empowering others through technology and education. In this short introduction.
From developing cutting-edge curriculum to advocating for new funding models in journalism, Juli is driven by a deep commitment to community empowerment, collaboration, and future-focused thinking. Her story is one of perseverance, creativity, and a relentless drive to help others realize their potential.
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Juli James
Guiding innovation with heart, hustle,
and hard-earned wisdom.
Innovation with a capital “I.”
Juli’s work spans interactive storytelling, ed-tech, and academics. Her cross-sector innovation lens helps participants think beyond traditional solutions and explore bold, field-shaping ideas.
Built by an innovator, not just a facilitator.
Juli has co-founded two startups—giving her firsthand insight into the challenges of launching, funding, and pivoting ventures. She brings this lived experience into every session.
Crafted for real-world impact.
As lead curriculum developer at EQALL and an instructional designer at UNT Health Science Center, Juli designs learning that’s practical, accessible , and action-oriented—ensuring participants walk away with tools they can use immediately.
Empowering experimentation with confidence.
Juli’s experience guiding founders through pivots and prototype development means she knows how to create safe, structured spaces for testing new ideas. Participants will gain not only tools—but the mindset—to explore bold solutions without fear of failure.
Juli turns bold ideas into actionable breakthroughs.
Juli James is an instructional designer and curriculum developer specializing in innovation learning programs. She is the lead curriculum developer at EQALL, where she designs entrepreneurship education for underserved founders, and serves as an Instructional Designer with the Division of Academic Innovation at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth.
Juli brings both entrepreneurial and educational expertise to her work. She co-founded Playable Media, developed with support from a Knight Foundation Prototype Fund grant (2015) for an interactive storytelling tool for journalists, later pivoted toward education. She also co-founded Wildcards.io, an ed-tech company selected for the AT&T Aspire Accelerator (2019). These experiences—securing competitive funding, building tools, and navigating pivots—inform her practical, real-world approach to innovation.
As facilitator for the CDFI Innovation Accelerator, Juli has developed the stage-by-stage curriculum and will lead the virtual sessions, helping participants define capitalization challenges, test new approaches, and contribute to the field’s broader innovation agenda.
