Giving

Why I Give

Sustainable Growth

“Education is a passion of mine,” Julia Casady says. A longtime teacher, Casady is cofounder, with her husband, Mark, of the One Step Forward Education Foundation, which focuses its philanthropy on education initiatives. 

With their giving, she says, “we’re trying to level the playing field.” To that end, the foundation has endowed a scholarship for aspiring educators at BU Wheelock. 

“What’s really important for our foundation is finding things that are sustainable,” says Casady. 

“If you put your time and energy into it, it needs to grow. It needs to mature. And that’s what Wheelock does.” 

Casady grew up in a small farming community in southern Indiana; she met her husband at 15, when he joined their high school’s French club shortly after moving to town. They married in college and raised four children. Their daughter Maggie Casady (’12,’14) studied at BU Wheelock as both an undergrad and a graduate student. 

“She was able to find a fabulous job right off the mark. And what we kept seeing as she interviewed was, people knew what they were getting from Wheelock. They have a great product,” says Casady. 

“What I find really exciting, and what our foundation loves, is being entrepreneurial. We like to see a need and to fill it, to create something new,” she adds. So, she’s excited to see BU Wheelock expanding its offerings in education policy, in hopes of improving education systems in the US and around the world—which is the objective of all of Casady’s philanthropy. 

“A lot of people look at that and go, ‘Oh, it’s overwhelming!’” Casady says. “Well, you know, you start with a place like Wheelock, and you build on that.”