Meet these new members and welcome them to The Ebell!
Julie Neustadt Heifetz, PhD
Julie was born and raised in LA – her great grandparents moved here in the early 1900s. She studied Education and Cultural Anthropology at UCLA, where she also gained her PhD.
Julie is an educator and advocate and works as a consultant locally and internationally to promote the wellbeing, empowerment, education and opportunities for women/girls and children to ensure they are safe from violence. She has worked on human trafficking, education/literacy, and economic opportunity issues.
Her interest are photography, piano, arts and culture – she loves music, going to concerts, galleries and the theater. She also enjoys socializing. She loves to travel, both here in the US and around the world, particularly to developing countries. But perhaps her biggest passion is her grandchildren, and children everywhere.
Julie volunteers for AARP and is a member of Los Angeles City Advocates, which provides liaison to LA City council to address homelessness and to foster livable communities. She is an advocate for UN Women and is involved with the creation of the Every Woman Treaty fellowship, an international network to end violence against women and girls. She also volunteers for the Ethnic Arts Council of LA.
Julie has moved back to LA after working in Asia and DC for 10 years. She lives in Hancock Park and joined The Ebell “to meet terrific women in the area. I have, thanks to The Ebell!”
Kristi Welch
Kristi has recently located to LA from Atlanta, Georgia. She has lived in the south most of her life, with small stints in the northeast for school (Boston University) and work. Now she has moved to California to be closer to her family – her daughter, Emma Welch, is also an Ebell member – for “an exciting new adventure!”
Kristi’s interests include travel, fashion, fine arts and food. As for volunteer work, her most recent volunteer position was with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, allowing her to explore her love of visual arts.
“I am looking forward to exploring the many events and volunteer opportunities The Ebell has to offer,” says Kristi. “I am also excited to get to know this wonderful and diverse city.”
Erica Liepmann
Erica was born and raised in the Los Angeles area. She attended high school in Pasadena, and then went on to earn her Bachelor’s degree in English from Occidental College and her Master’s degree in Public Policy from the University of Southern California.
Her career has spanned the private, nonprofit, and public sectors – including working for nearly four years in the Office of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti. Most recently, Erica co-founded a local nonprofit called Ready to Launch which is focused on diversifying the staff pipeline in government and politics. Ready to Launch offers fellowships and other programs to help more women, particularly those from historically marginalized communities, explore these careers.
Erica has a long history of involvement in local groups, including serving as the past president of the Los Angeles County Young Democrats. She is deeply passionate about building inclusive and supportive communities of women, and volunteers much of her time to mentor young women launching their careers. Erica is also an LA history buff who loves exploring our region’s rich history and culture through the lens of art, architecture, and food. She lived in Koreatown for many years and recently moved to Los Feliz, where she lives with her partner and her cat.
She is honored to join the Ebell community and looks forward to getting to know all the members.
Chris Morris
Chris moved to Los Angeles in 2014, “happily leaving behind over 15 years of cold Chicago winters!”, to open the Los Angeles Field Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
With a background that includes classical studies, archaeology, architecture, art history, and museum studies, she decided to roll all of those interests together with a Masters in Historic Preservation from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, first working for architecture firms and consultants in the Chicago area before joining the National Trust’s Chicago Office.
Living in Echo Park and working in downtown, she’s loved getting to know Los Angeles and Southern California through hiking, biking, stair hikes, and kayaking. In her spare time you can find her swimming, gardening, making ceramics, obsessively following the news, and going to movies.
Her job brings her into contact with a number of non-profit organizations on a regular basis and she’s looking forward to getting more involved with The Ebell’s committees. For the last two years she’s been leading the Trust’s Where Women Made History initiative to bring more attention and respect to women’s roles in shaping virtually every aspect of our history and culture, and she’s thrilled to have the opportunity to meet, work with, and learn from so many remarkable women at The Ebell.
