Chief Youth Safety Officer
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
Julie Novak is the Chief Youth Safety Officer for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. Her decades-long career has been dedicated to working to end violence. For the past eighteen years, she has served as Big Brothers Big Sisters’ leading expert and spokesperson on child safety and youth protection, advancing effective child abuse and violence prevention strategies reaching more than 5,000 local communities across all 50 states. She has provided training and consultation to thousands of professionals on child protection and risk management during her tenure. She has served as a Board Member of the U.S. Center for SafeSport since its inception in January 2016. She was appointed to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s Board of Directors Program Advisory Council in 2019. In 2018, she led the National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse & Exploitation as President. She has served in an advisory capacity to international, national, state-wide, and local organizations, including Johns Hopkins Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse, the CDC, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, and Vice President Biden’s Gun Violence Task Force. Novak is certified in Youth Mental Health First Aid, a program of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing.
She holds a BBA in Economics with a focus on public policy from the University of Iowa. She lives with her husband and two dogs in Wisconsin, where they raised their three daughters.
Elevating Youth Wellbeing: The Impact of Mentorship on Mental Health
Sunday, April 14, 2024
3:30 PM – 4:00 PM CT