Julie F. Rafferty, BA

Julie Fitzpatrick Rafferty has more than 20 years of media relations, crisis communications, marketing and fundraising communications experience. Before rejoining the boutique firm Rafferty Communications Strategies as a full-time principal in 2016, she was Associate Vice Dean for Communications at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Julie previously was Director of Communications at Harvard-affiliated Joslin Diabetes Center.

At Harvard, she supervised a team responsible for the School’s media relations, crisis communications, social and digital media, and fundraising communications in support of a $700 million Capital Campaign.

At Joslin, she built the media relations, marketing, and fundraising communications function from the ground up, helping to position Joslin as the name brand in diabetes treatment and research.

Julie began her career as a daily newspaper editor and reporter covering politics, local government, business, and features for several newspapers in New York. Julie has received numerous awards and honors from such organizations as the American Medical Writers Association, Cine, and the New England Direct Marketing Association

Through her consulting practice at Rafferty Communications Strategies, Julie has worked with a wide variety of organizations on both the East and West coasts as well as internationally in fields ranging from healthcare and public health to social services, education, and law. Her most recent engagements have included projects for the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; the University of California, San Francisco;  Pine Street Inn (New England's largest charity serving the homeless); Ariadne Labs, (a joint program of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health); and Harvard Law School.

Julie has presented at numerous conferences, including the Harvard University All-Staff Fundraising Conference, the Ivy + Fundraising Conference, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), and the Association for Fundraising Professionals. She also has been a guest lecturer on communications  for programs in Harvard’s Continuing Education programs and for its doctor of public health program.

Julie is a magna cum laude graduate of Syracuse University, where she majored in Policy Studies and Journalism.