Juliane Heyman

Juliane (Julie) Heyman is no stranger to Aspen; nor is she a stranger to personal hardship, perseverance, or philanthropy. A World War Two refugee from the Free City of Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland), Julie and her family fled to Belgium and France, eventually crossing the Pyrenees before making their way to America through Ellis Island in the early 1940s when she was sixteen. Since then, Julie has dedicated her life to helping others. Equipped with two Masters Degrees from the University of California Berkeley in International Relations and Library Science, she began her international development career in countries such as Japan, India, Vietnam, Pakistan, Nepal and El Salvador.

Julie first came to Aspen in 1943 to visit her brother who was serving in the 10th Mountain Division. After visiting a few times in the 1950s and 1960s, she declared her love for the area in the early 1960s while training Peace Corps volunteers in Marble. In 1970 she moved to Aspen, teaching at the Aspen Country Day School, Colorado Mountain College, and consulting for the Aspen Institute, and also bought the home where she still resides. Three years later Julie felt called back to work on development projects in the Caribbean, Central America, and West Africa, but returned to Aspen on a more permanent basis upon her semi-retirement in 1983. Julie now shares her time between Aspen and Santa Barbara, California.

“The world is my community,” Julie says, “but nevertheless since I live here I feel very strongly about helping people here.” Although she has been involved with local nonprofits and issues for over thirty years, she decided to open a Donor Advised Fund at Aspen Community Foundation in 2005 “because it opened up new venues for me to see programs that could need my help. And since I was a refugee myself, I am particularly interested in the Latino programs. I can very much empathize with how difficult it is to start life in a new country.” Julie is also passionate about individual rights, higher education, women’s issues, the environment, and the arts.