Joe was born and raised in Pittsburgh during the Great Depression with 14 siblings and very little money.  In those days, a college education was a mathematical impossibility for a poor kid like Joe so his school put him on a secretarial track with very little math or science. After graduating, he couldn't get hired at the local steel mills, so he enlisted in the Army. After almost 4 yeas in a WWII POW labor camp, Joe returned to the US with optimism but limited job prospects and that’s when he learned about the GI Bill, a federal program that helps veterans afford a college education. Joe jumped at this opportunity, enrolling at a local university where he impressed his professors and went on to attain a Masters degree in Physics and a fulfilling career at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Joe is Julie’s father and his experience has taught her how life-changing an education can be for a student, for a family, for a community. That's what public investment in education does, it changes trajectories across generations, and she'll fight for it in the legislature.