About

Julianna Burmesch holds a Bachelor's degree in Communicative Disorders with a minor in Psychology and two Master's degrees, one in Speech Pathology and the other in Educational Administration. Having worked in both fields with a focus on early childhood education, she was at the forefront of the four-year-old kindergarten movement in Wisconsin. Under her leadership, the four-year-old kindergarten program became a statewide demonstration site for collaborative pre-kindergarten programming and the Pyramid Model for Social-Emotional Competence. The Wausau Pre-Kindergarten programs received the Communities Can Award from Georgetown University for community-wide collaboration and were also recognized in Governor Doyle’s State of the State address on January 21, 2006.

Julianna has presented and consulted throughout Wisconsin and the United States on early childhood issues, including parenting, early brain development, and quality early education programming, and has appeared at the National School Board Convention in 2006 and in Florida at The Next Steps Early Childhood Conference at Disney World in 2003. 

In 2007, Julianna was sidelined with a necrotizing (flesh-eating) infection, and again in 2010 with cancer, during which she was also caring for her abusive father. Her physical and mental health issues came to a head in 2011 when her life’s work was threatened. She is now reclaiming her mission to improve the lives of young children through her memoir, Life with Less of Me.