From an athlete to a leader in academia to an entrepreneur, Coronadan Dr. Julie Ducharme is no stranger to finding herself in places she never expected to be. Next up, she’s hosting the She Talks Global Experience in Coronado on March 7.
How sports shaped her path
“I was playing high-level sports, professional sports overseas: volleyball and basketball. I came back and did what most athletes do when we’re trying to figure out what’s next, and asked, ‘What do I want to do when I grow up?’” Dr. Julie laughs. “I started coaching at Cuyamaca College with a friend of mine who had been on the men’s Olympic team. Then they started giving me classes. I essentially took over being the head coach and became a professor at the age of 23.”
She continues, “Before I knew it, I was a chair over three departments, and then I became a dean running 20 business colleges. When I became a dean, they gave me a big office overlooking a beach volleyball court. I was really good at my job, but it wasn’t necessarily something I wanted to do for the next 30 years.” At that point in her life, Julie had become a mom, and the 80 hours a week and running 20 businesses across the U.S. wasn’t aligning for her anymore.
“If this is success, this isn’t what I want.”
With that mindset, Julie shifted into entrepreneurship. ”I had an events company and a consulting company. I decided to pursue those full-time. The events company was 23 years old. The consulting company eventually grew, and I started my own technical-vocational college serving veterans. I have a small side company where I’m designing volleyball equipment. In the midst of all that, when I was in the corporate space of academia, I really saw this need. I felt women were not treating each other very well, and the bosses I had, the women I was working with, were quite vicious. In volleyball, our belief was that we wanted everyone to be successful. If you’re my teammate, I need you to be successful because I won’t be successful if you’re not. I really had that philosophy of wanting everyone to be successful. ‘How do I help you?’ And ‘How do you help me?’”
She continues, “Maybe it was naive of me to go into corporate thinking that, but I thought, ‘Is this the best that I have to offer my daughter? For her to just go to some toxic, terrible environment and behave like this?'”
Creating She Talks
About eight years ago, when Dr. Julie was transitioning out of big corporate, she talked with some friends about her idea to create opportunities for women where they feel safe and work together.
“What if we just brought women together to tell their stories?” Dr. Julie asked her friends. “We don’t need their expertise. We tell our true, honest stories. Because all of us, all these women I was talking to, we were all best friends because we came from totally different industries. We would not normally be friends, but we talked about our stories and found out how authentic and wonderful everyone was.”
For the first She Talks conference, Dr. Julie anticipated that twenty women would show up. She was shocked when a hundred women came out. “We squeezed them into this little spot that was way too small, and it was a great event.” After its success, Dr. Julie envisioned an annual She Talks conference. Once again, the reality was bigger than the dream. “The next year, the University of San Diego called us. Some of the women from there had attended our event and wanted to host it there.” Julie laughs, “That event got way out of control. I started getting calls from these women, barrier breakers.”
The calls came in from across America. “We were doing 3,4, and 5 conferences a year. Women kept saying, ‘We want a membership. We want more space together.’ It started growing globally, which wasn’t anticipated. About three years ago, we shifted to a full corporate model with memberships and an international magazine, and created platforms in countries around the world.” There’s now an event every month, in a different country around the world.
“My philosophy has always been: Say yes and figure it out. Over the last year and a half, we’ve expanded. So we’re now in the US, Canada, Ireland, the UK, Australia, Dubai, and Zimbabwe, with new countries added monthly.”
From a Conference to an Experience
She Talks are called experiences on purpose as they are very different than any other conference one might go to. Dr. Julie explains, “Usually, in the morning session, there are empowerment talks that are anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes in length. We may integrate panels and performances. We’ve had Jessica Muese from American Idol come in and perform. Christine Van Loo, one of the top acrobats in the world, did a show. We’ve had improv comedians. Everyone is a woman that we’re giving a platform to.”
In the afternoon, She Speaks aims to empower and educate women with workshops and training sessions with experts from around the world. The demographic is women aged 30 to 70, and 80% of them are typically entrepreneurs, ranging from startups to businesses worth $50 million.
The experience is not and cannot be a cookie-cutter. Dr. Julie explains that the training varies by country. “Different countries have different needs, including different cultural needs.”
She Talks Global Experience – March 7
She Talks Global Experience is coming to the Coronado Community Center on March 7. “She Talkers” from around the globe — Australia, Croatia, Mexico — are already registered to connect. March is Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day is March 8, so the event will have a very international flavor. Panel speakers are from different countries so each will be able to speak to their experience in that country.
On what makes She Talks special, Dr. Julie says, “You enter a room full of women who really, truly believe in the mission and vision of uplifting and supporting each other. There are famous women who were in this situation at some point.”
As She Talks grows, Dr. Julie is excited to have added Youth Ambassadors. “We really believe in investing in our youth,” she says. “We have three that are going to be speaking at this event, Ava, who is in middle school; my daughter Abigail who’s in high school; and Avery, who is in college.”
Another area Dr. Julie is proud of is the commitment to veterans. “We invite women veterans, and we provide them with scholarships to come to the events. We have a program called Combat Boots to Heels that supports them in their transition, and we also integrate them into all of our events.” VR Small is a retired Navy veteran and will be the MC. “We typically have one of our women veterans sing the national anthem. We have women veterans integrated into what we do, but then also in the audience, because we connect them with all these other women who are looking to hire, looking to start businesses with someone, and are looking to connect.”
Sisterhood First
A cornerstone of She Talks is that it’s a global sisterhood first. “Women end up doing business together, building businesses, selling businesses, because there’s a trust that exists. This isn’t a transactional event; it’s an empowerment event that helps women move forward in their lives, and then, all of those amazing, organic things happen.”
“We just want to make an impact,” Dr. Julie says. “We encourage women to come. They don’t have to have a business. They don’t have to be in a certain space in life. This is really a welcoming event for all women from all walks of life, because a lot of times women think, ‘If there’s a conference, oh, I have to have a business, or I have to be in a certain position, or I have to be in this industry.’ That’s not the case for this. It’s definitely an open door, an inclusive welcome to all women.”
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She Talks Impact
The impact of She Talks is evident in Julie’s inbox. “We’ve received emails from women who say, ‘I attended this event, and because this woman told her story, I realized I wasn’t alone. I was thinking about committing suicide, but I’ve changed my mind.’ We’ve gotten multiple of those, which is heartbreaking for me, but at the same time, that’s the power of the story. We really are giving women a platform, and we’re saying, ‘Listen, you don’t have to be famous, you don’t have to have a million followers. Your story matters. Share it.’”
Dr. Julie describes storytelling as the “essence” of the organization. “We’ve had women who have been able to grow their business in an exponential way by us giving them a platform. That’s opened up popular keynotes for them, paid speakers, their businesses have gone viral, and that’s created opportunities. It creates that because of the power of their story. They just needed someone to give them a space.”
Instead of giving women just a seat at the table, Dr. Julie describes it as, “We’re giving them a stage. That’s where we see the power and success. Why this is growing like crazy.” She reiterates, “I wasn’t planning to make a huge, global company. The scale of it when you’re trying to bring about a cultural paradigm shift worldwide can sometimes be overwhelming. But what I’ve found in every country, and I’m literally almost in a different country every month this year with all these launches and new countries, is that we tell women, ‘Hey, leave your politics and religion at the door and just come in.’ When they do that, women realize we’re all the same. We’re business owners, we’re wives, we’re mothers, we’re grandmothers. There’s this commonality: no matter what culture or country you’re in, women are finding that connectivity, and that’s what’s really shifting everything we’re doing.”
It’s a message needed now more than ever. “Our world seems incredibly divided, and this is a way that we are transcending that. I got an email from a young woman in Iraq, and she said, ‘We’re reading your magazine right now, because it’s all we have to read. But I was wondering if you would share my story.’” While they can’t include the woman’s name for her safety, they can still share her story. “We did the international magazine, so women who couldn’t make it to us, we could put their stories in, and vice versa, they could read stories. There is a power in storytelling through an international magazine. We have women writing our magazine from Australia, Ireland, the UK, Iceland, the U.S., and around the world.”
Women who inspire Dr. Julie
Dr. Julie ends the interview by sharing two women who have inspired her. One historical and one present. “I always talk a lot about Sarah Blakely,” she says. “I feel like we connect. She and I are both these women who love to have fun and are inventive. I love the way she sees life. She started with door-to-door fax machines, and when you’re running a global women’s platform, it’s a lot of work behind the scenes.” Another woman who inspires Dr. Julie is the Polish-French physicist and chemist, Marie Curie. “What she did was so powerful and life-changing for people.”
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Event Description
On March 7, women from around the world come together for the She Talks Global Experience — a dynamic, high-energy day designed to inspire, connect, and elevate. This one-of-a-kind experience brings together visionary leaders, entrepreneurs, creatives, and change-makers for powerful stories of impact, authentic connection, and meaningful conversations that move women forward.
From transformational talks and elevated networking to curated experiences, exciting giveaways, and unforgettable moments, She Talks is where women step into their voice, expand their influence, and rise together. Anchored in the global 10K Women Rising movement, this experience is about more than inspiration—it’s about collective momentum, leadership, and creating real-world impact.
