Our Team

GCAC Roots & Executive Leadership

Global Citizen Adventure Corps (GCAC) is a 501(c)(3) public charity, co-founded in the summer of 2022 by Stacie Freeman, M.S.S.W., and Dr. Julie Hill.

GCAC was formed to better facilitate service-based travel opportunities for young people from under-represented backgrounds who might not otherwise have them. Dr. Hill believes deeply in the power of the arts, travel, service learning, and in cultivating a mindset of global consciousness from an early age. For students who hunger for first-hand knowledge of the world around them — and who are willing to earn that educational privilege through service to their local and global communities — GCAC works to make their dream a reality.

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Dr. Hill serves as GCAC’s President & Chief Executive Officer.
With more than 30 years of experience across K–12 and university teaching in music education, arts administration, and non-profit leadership, she has personally led and served as administrator for global studies programs for hundreds of students, faculty, and community members to destinations including Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, France, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, England, Honduras, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Scotland, Switzerland, Turkey, and Trinidad & Tobago.

Dr. Julie Hill

Dr. Julie Hill
President, CEO, and Co-Founder, Global Citizen Adventure Corps
Former Professor of Percussion and Department Chair, University of Tennessee at Martin

Dr. Julie Hill is an internationally respected music educator, performer, scholar, and nonprofit leader with more than 30 years of experience spanning K–12 and university teaching, arts administration, and nonprofit executive leadership. She is the President, CEO, and Co-Founder of Global Citizen Adventure Corps (GCAC), a nonprofit organization committed to expanding access to global service-learning for students and community members.

Dr. Hill previously served as Chair of the Department of Music at the University of Tennessee at Martin, where she had been a Professor of Percussion since 2005. A dynamic and sought-after speaker and artist, she has delivered hundreds of workshops, concerts, and lectures around the world, with a research focus on social mobility through music—particularly championing Black women and underserved youth in Northeastern Brazil.

As a conductor, lecturer, clinician, and performer, Dr. Hill has presented in Peru, Poland, Mexico, Brazil, France, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Taiwan, and across the United States. She also tours internationally with the award-winning Caixa Trio. She is fluent in Brazilian Portuguese and has working proficiency in Spanish.

Dr. Hill’s excellence as a teacher-scholar has been recognized through numerous accolades, including the University of Tennessee President’s Educate Award (inaugural recipient), the UT Alumni Association Outstanding Teacher Award, the Cunningham Outstanding Teacher/Scholar Award, and the Hardy Graham Distinguished Professorship. She is a Member Laureate of Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity and a Past President of the Percussive Arts Society.

Currently, she is Principal Percussionist with the Paducah Symphony Orchestra and serves as Co-Editorial Director of Percussive Notes, the scholarly journal of the Percussive Arts Society. She is the co-author of All-Inclusive Etudes (Row-Loff Productions) and Music for Multi-Percussion: A World View (Alfred Publications), with additional works published by Innovative Percussion and Row-Loff. Her academic writing appears in Percussive Notes and the Garland World Music Encyclopedias.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Hill collaborated with the Tennessee Music Educators Association and the CMA Foundation to create and host Keeping the Beat by TNMEA, an acclaimed interactive webinar series connecting world-class professionals in all genres of music with hungry music students sheltering in their homes. Over the course of 62 episodes, the series featured renowned guests such as Los Lobos, Chuck Leavell, Joan Jett, and Raul Malo, attracting viewers in 45 countries and generating more than 2 million social media engagements.

Dr. Hill holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Kentucky, a Master of Music in Percussion Performance from Arizona State University, and a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Tennessee at Martin. She is an artist and clinician for Yamaha, Zildjian, Remo, Innovative Percussion, and Grover Pro Percussion.

Having traveled to more than 30 countries and all 50 U.S. states—including 59 of the nation’s 63 National Parks—Dr. Hill continues to inspire the next generation of artists, educators, and global citizens.

www.juliehilleducator.com