E.M.P.I.R.E.'s founder and President, Julia Sewell, has been a motivational speaker and performer for the past 9 years. Julia Sewell is a 22-year-old from Minneapolis. She is a graduate from Augsburg College in Minnesota, with a B.A. in psychology. She is an actress, a model, a motivational speaker, and a published poet. She started her work in service at 10 years old. She began volunteering at soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and with community organizations. Her passion for service and to be a part of change continued to grow. She attended the National Youth Leadership Training and became involved with the National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC). From here on out, she also became a part of their entity and started presenting at various conferences. The first of which was the Ryan White Conference for HIV/AIDS.

Julia served on the Youth Performance Companies' youth artists board (2006-2007). She is, also, the founding Vice-President of Umoja Academy, an organization that her and a friend began. Umoja Academy provides programming for at risk youth in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Julia served as a member of State Farm's Youth Advisory Board 2007-2008 where she helped to give out $5 million dollars to service-learning projects across the country. She was selected to serve on the America’s Promise Alliance Youth Partnership Team and still serves on their IMPACT Network Steering Committee.

Julia became a Bonner Scholar at Augsburg College. She was also a McNair Scholar. Through this program, she completed her research on definitions of success and how these differ among black and white young men.

Leadership has always been in her heart. At age 14, Julia was selected to be apart of the inaugural group in the Youth Leaders International Program. This program gathered the top leaders from all across the globe (Russia, Africa, Australia, etc) and brought them together to create strategies for leadership within the local and National context. Julia was apart of this program for 3 years and traveled to France and Great Britain on the programs behalf. She was also selected to attend the Inaugural Clinton Global Initiative in New Orleans, LA where Bill Clinton spoke and gave advice about global leadership and how we as youth can work to be apart of this initiative. As a result, Julia served as a campus representative for the organization. 

Julia began acting at age 5 and she has not stopped since! Julia began to combine her love for the stage with her passion for change. Julia is now a sought after speaker and performer, and performs at conferences, events, programs, and ceremonies across the nation. She recently performed at the 2010 National Service Learning Conference. 

Julia has currently performed and spoken at more than 100 conferences, events, and venues. Julia began E.M.P.I.R.E. to continue to serve her world as a speaker and performer but also to offer other young people, around the country, with this opportunity and also to offer the opportunity to become today's leader. Julia is passionate about helping people to find their arts, hone them and to use them to motivate change in their communities and world. Julia is currently giving a year of her life to complete service by serving in City Year Detroit. Later this year, Sewell is moving to New York to serve as a National Teaching Fellow for Citizen Schools.