Julia O’Brien is running for Bedminster Township Committee. Although Bedminster is a famously Republican town, she feels it is important for all citizens to have a choice on election day. At a time when the national Republican party is running on climate change denial. reducing the rights of ordinary citizens for the benefit of a small minority, and a cult of personality for a convicted felon, it seems to her that many Democrats and independents will not want to pull the lever for anyone under a Republican banner. With the greatest respect for all her opponents have done for Bedminster, she believes that she offers voters in Bedminster a choice for someone who can work effectively for Bedminster without the baggage the current Republican party carries.

Julia has been the chair of the Bedminster Democratic Committee since November 2023.  She is a resident of the Bedminster Hills, serves on the HOA Board for Signal Point, and has been a lifetime volunteer and activist for women’s rights, environmental responsibility, and community organizations wherever she has lived. She is a mother of one son and a grandmother to adorable 7-year-old twins.

Professionally, Julia retired in 2023 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, where she was the Region 2 Geospatial Coordinator, responsible for data analysis of both natural and manmade threats and disasters. In that role she worked toward building connections in the geospatial data analysis community within FEMA, and within the emergency management communities of New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. Under her tenure, Region 2 became a model of effective coordination and communication to improve response in times of disaster across the nation.

Prior to joining FEMA, she used geospatial data analysis in the fields of public safety, community planning, and environmental analysis. She was the project manager for the creation of the official, unified data set of streets and addresses currently used by all New York City agencies, including NYPD, FDNY, and EMS for emergency dispatch. This was part of the Emergency Communications Transformation Program that came out of the lessons learned on 9/11. She spent over 21 years prior to that as a consultant on projects for Environmental Impact Statements and environmental analysis, and studies for community planning projects chiefly in New York and New Jersey. Her career has given her a background in many of the areas that will prove important in Bedminster in the coming years – pubic safety communication systems and data, environmental issues that will affect our power and communications infrastructures, community planning, and emergency response.

As a volunteer, she is proudest of her two years as President of Business and Professional Women New Jersey. Prior to being elected president of that organization, she rose through the ranks as secretary and vice-president, after being secretary/vice-president/president of her local chapter in Summit, NJ. Julia was active in the Democratic party both in Summit and Cranford prior to moving to Bedminster in 2021. She continues to be involved in several grassroots political organizations that came about after the 2016 election. She has been Chair of Deacons and several other committees over her 35-year membership at Christ Church in Summit, and currently serves as a leader of the Reproductive Rights group at that church. In the years her son was growing up, she taught Sunday school for 8 years, and coached a boys soccer team for 7 years. Most recently, she volunteered as campaign manager for the LD23 Democrats running for the state Senate and Legislature in NJ District 23 in 2023.