Julie Sparkman has spent her career standing in the gap for people the system leaves behind.

A Washington State home care aide and Union member bargaining team representative, Julie has worked at the intersection of caregiver rights, Medicaid protections, and vulnerable population advocacy for years. She has testified at the state and federal level on the direct connection between caregiver stability and client safety and her union trusted her enough to fly her to Washington D.C. to represent thousands of Washington caregivers at the federal level.

Her advocacy does not stop at labor rights. Julie has worked on civil committees, supported political campaigns, and built relationships inside Washington State's legislative infrastructure that most advocates never access. She cares for children with underlying health conditions in her daily work which means the gap between policy and lived reality is never abstract to her. She lives it every day.

She and Laura have worked together since 2010 investigating cases, fighting for children and families, and getting results. In every case they have worked together, the approach has been the same. Find the truth. Stand in it. Don't stop until the right thing is done.

Julie brings to Handbasket Haven what she brings to everything the credibility of someone who has done the work, the relationships of someone who has shown up consistently, and the conviction of someone who knows exactly what is at stake for the people they serve.