About Julie Chan
I am a social entrepreneur, creative artist, and intuitive purpose coach. I am driven by the need to empower people who are seeking better lives.
I grew up in the Lower East Side of New York City with a first-generation family that believed that education = opportunity. I worked really hard in high school and graduated from Yale University with a B.A. and MIT with a Master's degree in City Planning. Sparked by a yearning to understand all the socioeconomic changes in my neighborhood and how people in cities, especially those with fewer resources, can live better, I led a decade-long career in urban planning and economic development. Working in the public, private and nonprofit sectors, I created impactful programs to support businesses, entrepreneurs, people living in poverty, and cities at the forefront of innovation. This year, I am participating as a fellow with Revive the Dream, as part of a cohort of professionals dedicated to catalyzing education reform for underserved youth.
An avid singer, I have performed in the Make Music NY community festival and in concert tours around the world with my college a cappella groups. I am a volunteer singer for the nonprofit Sing for Hope, which brings healing arts programming to hospitals, nursing facilities and schools throughout New York City. An enthusiastic photographer and plein-air painter, I co-founded Crosby Street Gallery in 2009 to provide affordable and inspirational art online and in pop-up galleries.
Throughout the years, I had several stressful job and life experiences that led me on a spiritual path and spurred a hunger to develop my intuition and inner strength. In 2015, I started Being My Purpose, a social enterprise whose mission is to empower people to know and express their life's purpose with confidence, creativity, and courage.
My Vision
While working in public service in New York City, I co-created entrepreneurship programs for low-income high school students, and became quite familiar with the nexus of youth development and high growth job opportunities related to science and technology. I launched programs that allowed hospitals to adapt to new technologies to improve healthcare for a diversity of patients, and envisioned ways to help social enterprises and nonprofits to thrive.
In all of these roles, I saw the direction of economic development, healthcare and education and kept thinking, why aren't we focused on each of us as human beings? Each of us has values, hopes, fears, dreams, and intrinsic motivations that drive us. All of us are, to some extent, grappling with poverty consciousness or wealth consciousness, or learning how to love others or ourselves more. And, above all, each of us has a unique purpose that we need to bring out into the world for us to be in the full expression of ourselves. If we don't, it impacts our mood, our careers, our relationships, and our health.
No matter who we are and what our background is, I believe that inner empowerment -- tapping into our infinite well of strength, connecting to a higher calling, and having the tools to be our best and most authentic selves -- is critical to leading fulfilling and abundant lives. Purpose is the North Star that can guide us to a more meaningful life.
I see purpose and inner empowerment as the missing pieces in revolutionizing education, healthcare, and economic development and addressing real challenges with inequity, poverty, and the epidemic of stress. Most importantly, aligning with our purpose is the path to living a life of happiness and peace in a way that serves humanity and the planet.
My Purpose
My purpose, based on the Akashic Records, is to use my voice to sing, build a family of spiritually empowered people, and to share my story. The path getting here was not easy and I could not have imagined it at the time. But, looking back, it makes complete sense, and I know a divine intelligence is behind it.
Each and every one of you also has a beautifully perfect and complex story that needs to unfold, as who you are and how you contribute to co-creating a better world.
Read about my story of transformation.