Julie McElrath, MSSW, is the director for community partnerships and strategy at The University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work. In this role, she works across the school and with community partners to deepen relationships, identify opportunities for collaboration, and ensure that research, education, and practice are responsive to community priorities and translated into meaningful action.
McElrath is a nonprofit executive and systems-change leader with more than 30 years of experience in for-profit and nonprofit organizations, including more than a decade in chief executive and board leadership roles. Her work centers on building partnerships, aligning stakeholders, and strengthening the systems and organizations that serve individuals, families, and communities. She is particularly interested in creating sustainable connections between academic research, community expertise, policy, and practice.
Much of McElrath’s career has focused on substance use recovery and the development of recovery-oriented systems of care. As president of CLEAN Cause Foundation and Cause CHANGE Collaborative, she led the organization’s transition from direct charitable support to a systems-change and field-building model focused on recovery housing sustainability, standards of care, research, data, training, and technical assistance. She also partnered with the School of Social Work’s Addiction Research Institute as co-principal investigator of the Recovery Housing Sustainability Project, a multidisciplinary initiative examining financial and operational barriers within the recovery housing system.
McElrath previously served as chief executive officer of Austin Recovery, where she led the integration of three mission-aligned nonprofit organizations, and as executive director of both the Central Texas Youth Recovery Network and University High School, Central Texas’ first recovery high school. Across these roles, she developed community and university partnerships, expanded services for youth and families, and advanced coordinated systems of treatment and recovery support.
A two-time graduate of UT Social Work, McElrath earned both her BSW and MSSW from The University of Texas at Austin and completed the Portfolio Program in Nonprofit Studies through the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Under her leadership, CLEAN Cause Foundation received the UT Tower Award for Outstanding Community Engagement and the Faces & Voices of Recovery Innovations in Recovery Award. McElrath’s individual honors include the Austin Woman Changemaker Award and the “Mac” McLester Champion of Recovery Award.
Professional interests: Community-engaged partnerships, systems change, nonprofit leadership and sustainability, substance use recovery, recovery housing, youth and family recovery supports, research-to-practice translation.