College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Community Sustainability

Julie Jesmer is the Business Builder Grant Manager for the Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center. In that role she will be developing a process for distributing and identifying potential grantees for the Business Builder Awards. This includes setting up and managing the application as well as the review and evaluation process.  

Julie comes to the GLM-RFBC from Washington State University where she was the program coordinator for WRASAP (Western Region Agricultural Stress Assistance Program). This program is another USDA supported project through the Farmer and Rancher Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN).   

Julie grew up in Denver, Colorado. She was raised in the city, by parents who grew up on high country cattle ranches.  She has been a clinical laboratory technician, a research scientist, a case manager in a juvenile prison, a community college instructor, a single mother, a non-profit organization manager, and a perpetual student. Julie has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work focusing on non-profit organization management, and a master’s degree in agriculture, specializing in Urban Agriculture.