ITN first printed a feature article by Julie Skurdenis in 1983. Five years and nearly a dozen ITN features later, she began writing the "Focus on Archaeology" column, which continues to this day.
Julie told ITN, "I believe that passion is everything in life. I am blessed in having been able to combine two of my passions for many years: travel and writing. My travel life began when I had just graduated from college, and my writing life began in 1976 and 1977 with the publication of two travel books, collections of walking tours of European cities called “Walk Straight Through the Square” and “More Walk Straight Through the Square.”
Both passions have continued unabated ever since. Julie also held a full professorship at the City University of New York until her retirement from university life in 2014. In addition to being an ITN Contributing Editor, she has served as travel editor of the magazine Archaeology, has written for 39 different magazines, including Archaeology Odyssey, British Heritage, GeoMundo, Lithuanian Heritage and Hispanic and has written travel stories for 32 newspapers, including the The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Denver Post.
She estimates that she has had more than 550 stories published since 1982. Julie wrote, "Regarding the passions, there are a few more in my life: my husband Paul, who shares most of my trips with me and has written 50 travel pieces, himself; my daughter, Katie, adopted from Chile at the age of four, who has served as my photographer on a number of trips, and an assortment of rescued felines who allow us to live with them.
“Adding to the mix are three children (now adults) from different families in Lithuania whom we sponsored and visited frequently for more than 20 years beginning in the mid-1990s. They've added a wonderful new dimension to our lives, and we still keep in touch with them regularly.”