Julie Skipper

Christina Canon

by Ward Schaefer
May 14, 2008

Though it’s hard to believe now, there was a time when Julie Skipper wanted nothing to do with Jackson. Skipper, a Meridian native, attended Millsaps College and graduated in 2001 with a degree in art history. “And then I decided I wanted to leave Mississippi and never come back,” she says with a laugh.

But “come back” she did. Skipper, 29, returned to Jackson four years ago and has thrown herself into the city she once turned her back on. A commercial litigation attorney for McGlinchey Stafford, Skipper chairs the Jackson Y.U.P.S. (Young Up and Coming Professionals) and serves on the steering committee for the Women’s Fund of the Community Foundation of Greater Jackson.

After Millsaps, Skipper went straight to Vanderbilt Law School, hoping that Nashville would broaden her horizons. When it came time to look for jobs, she tried to avoid Jackson, fearing that there weren’t enough like-minded people here. Nevertheless, she found herself, to her surprise, back where she started. “Not to get all philosophical, but we’re not always in charge,” she explains.

Upon returning, though, Skipper found a different city than the one she knew in college. “Just in the three years I’d been gone, Fondren started happening,” she says. “After I got back, the Renaissance just kept growing.”

It didn’t take Skipper long to find her place in the rebirth. She joined Y.U.P.S. and the Women’s Fund when both were just beginning, and she speaks proudly of how much they have grown. Y.U.P.S., a group devoted to recruiting and retaining young professionals, has swelled from a small monthly gathering to about 100 regular attendees and a mailing list five times as large. The Women’s Fund, which provides grants to improve the lives of women and children, has enjoyed similar success, growing to $500,000 in four years.

When she’s not networking, Skipper is probably running. After completing a half-marathon in Nashville, she decided to try the real thing at the inaugural Mississippi Blues Marathon in January. “I’m stubborn and goal-oriented, so marathon running is apparently a good fit,” she says.

As Skipper gets up to leave, a young man in medical scrubs approaches. A resident at UMC and a recent Jackson transplant, he’s overheard our conversation and would like to know more. Skipper, all smiles, talks to him for a while and gives him her card. A week later, she e-mails with an update: On her urging, the doctor came to the JFP Lounge, where he had a good time—so good, in fact, that he’s spreading the word about Y.U.P.S. A new group of medical residents has just arrived, and if Skipper has her way, they’ll be sticking around.

 
posted by on 05/14/08 at 06:06 PM. [printer-friendly version]   

posted by Queen601 on 05/19/08 at 05:09 PM