Julia Massimelli Sewall, Ph.D.

Julia Massimelli Sewall, Ph.D.

John Hopkins University

Julia Massimelli Sewall, Ph.D., is a senior lecturer at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, John Hopkins University where she serves as program director and member of the leadership team supporting the Ph.D. in biomedical engineering (BME). As a program director, Massimelli Sewall works collaboratively with the leadership team to manage the program's pedagogy, chairs the Ph.D. curriculum committee and serves as a primary resource person regarding rules, regulations and procedures for graduate education.

Prior to joining John Hopkins, Massimelli Sewall was the program director of the MSc Biobased Materials, MSc Systems Biology and MSc Imaging Engineering portfolios at the Faculty of Science and Engineering, Maastricht University, The Netherlands. 

Aside from being responsible for developing and evaluating graduate programs and department curriculum, Massimelli Sewall has developed multiple microbiology courses, including general microbiology, microbial genetics, microbiology laboratory and CURE (course-based undergraduate research experiences) in microbiology, including a microbiome CURE of her own design. Her research focuses on microbiology (microbiome; development of sensors) and developing and validating education instruments and tools. She was a 2013 American Society for Microbiology Teaching Fellow and a 2015 Biology Scholar, where she participated in a year-long assessment residency devoted to developing measurable student learning outcomes. She has also been a mentor for the biology scholars DBER Program and has served as a strategic partner for the ASMCUE planning committee since 2020.