Julie B. Ehrlich

Director, Presidential Initiatives & Chief of Staff at Mellon Foundation

Julie B. Ehrlich joined the Foundation in 2019 as program advisor and chief of staff. She serves as a counselor and key resource to the president on internal matters, providing a link in the integration and communication among the president, and Foundation grantees, officers, leadership groups, and staff. She also partners with the president to identify and support strategic opportunities for grantmaking in the Office of the President.

Previously, Ms. Ehrlich was assistant dean for strategic initiatives and chief of staff, executive director of the Birnbaum Women's Leadership Network, and adjunct professor of clinical law and co-instructor of the Reproductive Justice Clinic, at NYU School of Law. She was responsible for the Law School's strategic planning and its implementation; for leading inter-departmental and high-level projects; for advising the dean on a range of issues; and for ensuring collaboration among the Law School's administrative departments.

Prior to joining NYU Law in 2014, Ms. Ehrlich litigated First Amendment cases at Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz, LLP (now Ballard Spahr), and handled a range of civil rights matters at Cuti Hecker Wang LLP, where her cases concerned sex discrimination, harassment, and other unequal treatment in employment, legislative redistricting, prison conditions, the rights of the exonerated, and police misconduct, among other issues. She began her legal career as a staff attorney/fellow in the ACLU Women's Rights Project, and then clerked for Judge Nina Gershon in the Eastern District of New York and Judge Robert D. Sack on the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Ms. Ehrlich holds a BA cum laude with distinction in American studies from Yale University, and a JD magna cum laude from NYU, where she received a Hays Fellowship in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the Maurice Goodman Memorial Prize for Scholarship and Character. She is a member of the board of directors of the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU).