Rabbi Julie S. Schwartz is a native of Cincinnati and graduated summa cum laude from Walnut Hills High School. She was a three year graduate of Northwestern University and earned a Bachelor’s of Arts degree with a major in modern history. She was ordained at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati in 1986.

Following ordination, she became the first woman rabbi to serve on active duty as a chaplain in the United States military. Her active duty years were spent at the Naval Hospital in Oakland, California. There she focused on developing her pastoral care skills as well as providing leadership for the Jewish military community of Northern California. At the conclusion of her three year tour, she earned the Naval Commendation award.

From 1989 to 1999, she held various positions at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion which included serving as the Wexner grant implementer, Director of Alumni Relations and, National Director of Continuing Rabbinic Education. At the same time, she pursued advanced training in pastoral care and counseling and in adult education. She was certified as a Jewish chaplain by the National Association of Jewish Chaplains and became a certified supervisor of Clinical Pastoral Education. In the early 1990s, she established the first CPE program ever affiliated with a rabbinical school as well as initiating the Mayerson mentoring program.

In 1999 she moved to Atlanta, Georgia where she continued to develop her rabbinic skills. She was the founding rabbi for the Weinstein Hospice, a hospice which focuses on the needs of the greater Atlanta Jewish community. She was the rabbi for Temple B’nai Israel on the far south side of Atlanta and assisted its members in building their first synagogue home. In 2001, she became the Associate rabbi for Temple Emanu-El, a 750 family congregation, and then became its Senior Rabbi in 2004. She has taught in Atlanta’s Melton School, Emory University, and has served on the boards of the trans-denominational National Association for Jewish Chaplains, chairing its Certification Commission, The Weber School, the Faith Trust Institute, the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, and was the treasurer and Vice President of the Atlanta Rabbinical Association. In May 2011, she was awarded the Doctor of Divinity degree upon the 25th anniversary of her ordination.

In June 2011, she returned to Cincinnati and the HUC-JIR/Cincinnati campus. She again holds the post of Adjunct Associate Professor of Human Relations and supervises the programs in Clinical Pastoral Education as well as teaches course in related content. She served again as Chair of Chaplaincy Certification for the NAJC once again and maintains her board certification in NAJC and is an ACPE Certified Educator. 

She became the Associate Dean of the Cincinnati Campus of HUC in 2019.  She is the Rabbi of the campus chapel, is responsible for the rabbinic student pulpit program, and supports the pastoral care needs of the members of the Cincinnati campus community.

She was married to Dr. Michael B. Gladson, z"l, and is the mother of Reuven and Abigail Ballaban, Dr Lauren Spiegel, Rabbi Ari Ballaban, Gavriella and Andrew Douglass, Adina Ballaban and the Grandmother of Irwin. She maintains a flock of six chickens, a cat and a dog.