Julia Skelly

Job role: My role as Active Adults Lead is to support and enable adults to get, and stay, active through life and into older age. We work with key stakeholders across the system to create the conditions for adults to be more active more often and support the ambition for an age friendly city-region. I work with system partners to embed physical activity across strategy and strategic themes, utilising data, academic and lived experience insights to drive change through collaborative working. We have a key focus on reducing the inequalities experienced by many when trying to move more.

Professional background: I graduated from my undergrad in Sport and Exercise science in 2012 and went on to backpack for a year and then live in Australia for a year. Here I discovered my passion for health and moved back to the UK to complete a MSc in Nutrition. I have since worked in the public health sector on programs such as the National Diabetes Prevention Programme and Tier 3 weight management services before moving on to health and wellbeing support for those with long -term health conditions that are supported by unemployment services.

Fun fact: When I was travelling the bus drove off and left me at the Cambodian Vietnamese border. The bus had all my belongings including my passport! Luckily someone noticed the English girl was missing and made the bus come back for me.