Julie Coates is Senior Vice President of Information Services at LERN. She has
been affiliated with LERN since 1976 and directs LERN’s membership services.
By age 20 she was a leader in society, being a civil rights leader in the sixties. She
worked in North Carolina, and had many encounters with the KKK who threatened
her repeatedly for her work in civil rights. Her work is highlighted in Change
Comes Knockin’, a book plus video documenting the history of the North Carolina
civil rights movement.

That formative experience was the first stage in a life of being an educator,
change agent, community organizer, futurist, online educator and now the foremost
authority on learning styles. In her role as Senior Vice President for Information
Services for the Learning Resources Network (LERN), she directs and leads
information and education services for 4,000 members in over 800 colleges,
universities, schools and other educational organizations across Canada and the
United States.

She is a popular presenter and writer for LERN with expertise in a broad range of
topics in the field of Lifelong Learning and Continuing Education. Her work has
been critical to establishing the foundational content of the LERN model including
LERN ratios, demographic market segmentation, brochure design and program
analysis. In addition to diverse skills in the area of program management, she has
expertise in the area of teaching and learning. Specific areas of research include:

• Generational Learning Styles
• Gender in the classroom
• Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Teaching and Learning in Diverse communities
• Online Learning

Coates is author of several books, including the classic book, Generational
Learning Styles, Invisible Diversity, Nineshift: Life, Work and Education in the 21 st
Century as well as numerous articles. Her books have been translated into Russian
and Spanish.

Julie Coates is a popular conference speaker, and has spoken at conferences all over the world.
Media coverage of her work includes The New York Times, BBC Global Business, Washington
Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Wall Street Journal, Psychology Today among other media sources.