JULIA EMMONS
Atlanta, GA

Professional:

Emmons is the former Executive Director of the 10,000-member Atlanta Track Club and former director of the Peachtree Road Race, the world’s largest and best-known 10K with 55,000 runners. In her 22 years as head of the Atlanta Track Club, she was very active on the national running scene, serving as Chair of Women’s Long Distance Running for USATF from 1990-1996. She directed the Olympic Men’s and Women’s Marathons and Race Walks for the 1996 Games in Atlanta, and was on the U.S. Women’s Track and Field team for the 2004 Athens Olympics as Assistant Coach for Endurance Events (marathon, racewalk). In 2005, Emmons served as an Assistant Manager for the U.S. Track and Field Team at the World Championships in Helsinki.

Awards:

Emmons was selected as Race Director of the Year by Road Race Management in 1988, the first woman so honored, and has also received the Fred Lebow Women’s Running Award in 1996 from the RRCA, and the Fred Lebow Award for outstanding service to the sport by the National Distance Running Hall of Fame (2000). In 2005, she was elected into Running USA’s Hall of Champions. In addition, she is a member of Emory University’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Other Activities:

A veteran of 20 marathons, with a PR of 2:59:23, Emmons holds a Ph.D. in English History, and also served a four-year term on the Atlanta City Council. Strongly committed to the arts, she sits on several arts-related boards of directors. In 2005, she was elected into Atlanta’s Hospitality Hall of Fame by the Atlanta Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. Emmons is also a swimmer and trains with the Emory Aquatic Master’s. In 2005, she enjoyed her first Himalayan trek in Bhutan.