Who’s behind this?
Julia Gitis is the founder of San Francisco Good Neighbor Week. Julia joined an organizing call for National Good Neighbor Day in May 2025, where she learned that this awesome holiday has never been officially celebrated in San Francisco. Julia got excited (especially when she learned that it’s celebrated the last week of September every year, which is the most beautiful week of the year in San Francisco) and started reaching out to community partners to help make it happen.
Julia is the founder of Community News Lab, a nonprofit working to install community bulletin boards on public sidewalks in San Francisco. She is one of five inaugural Yes SF Nonprofit Innovators 2025, selected by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. Julia is also the founder of Support SF Schools, a website to help neighborhood residents volunteer and donate to their local public schools.
In her neighborhood, Julia is on the leadership team of Resilient West Portal, supports the Greater West Portal Neighborhood Association (GWPNA) as the school liaison, and serves on the School Site Council at West Portal Elementary School (SFUSD). In 2025 Julia participated in two national accelerators for neighborhood leaders: the Neighborhood Accelerator Program and Village Builders. She enjoys making baked goods for her neighbors, which is maybe how this whole thing started.
Julia is a current Board Member of SF Civic Tech, the city’s longest-running weekly tech-for-good hack night, where she has volunteered for over a decade. She previously served on the board of the San Francisco Press Club.
Julia started out her career as a classroom teacher in the east bay and worked in ed tech for many years (including five years as a senior product manager at Khan Academy). She holds a BA from UC Berkeley, a Masters in Education from Harvard, and an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management. Yes, she really loves school.