Our Chief Muse is an award-winning serial entrepreneur, author, blogger, and sought-after international speaker. She has educated and empowered audiences on four continents around topics of entrepreneurship, business management and leadership, and balancing work and family.  To book her as a speaker or learn more about her most requested topics, check out JulieLenzerKirk.com.

She is in her fifth year with the NSF-funded ACTiVATE program at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Through this program, which was named “Best Specialty Entrepreneurship Program” by the US Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, she helps experienced women start businesses by licensing technologies from universities and government labs. She is also an adjunct professor of Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship at UMBC and the Chair of the DC Chapter of the Women Presidents' Organization.

She founded her first company, Applied Creative Technologies, Inc. (ACT), in 1995 as an IT solutions firm focusing on manufacturing operations and inventory control. With Fortune 500 clients, she grew the company to multi-millions in revenues, winning several national awards for workplace excellence. Through her 10-year leadership, ACT developed and commercialized ACTrax , a leading-edge production and warehouse management system, for which she negotiated the sale in 2005.

Julie received the Athena Award in 2004 as recognition for her contributions to other business women and the community and was named to Maryland's Top 100 Women 2005 and 2008 sponsored by The Daily Record. She is a member of the National Center for Women and Information Technology's Entrepreneurial Alliance and a mentor for Count Me In's Make Mine a $Million Business program. Frequently quoted in the media – from Entrepreneur to Redbook and Family Circle Magazines - and having appeared in numerous local and national broadcast interviews, she also writes a column for Enterprising Women Magazine.