Amy Julia Becker Speaking Policy and Information

Thank you for your interest in having Amy Julia Becker speak with your group. She loves being able to engage with people face to face about important ideas through offering true stories and thoughtful teaching. From school assemblies to teacher workshops to retreats and conferences, Amy Julia has broad and deep experience bringing the topics she writes about to life.

About Amy Julia Becker

Amy Julia Becker is the award-winning author of four books. Her most recent book is White Picket Fences: Turning Towards Love in a World Divided by Privilege. She writes and speaks about faith, family, disability, and privilege. Her work has been published in The New York Times, USA Today, Christianity Today, The Washington Post and more. She has spoken at The Festival of Faith and Writing, the Q Ideas Conference, and Mockingbird, among many other conferences, churches, and schools. She is a member of INK: A Creative Collective. She lives in western Connecticut with her husband and her three children. 

Below is more information on topics Amy Julia speaks about, answers to typical questions, and her speaking policy. Please fill out this form if you have any additional questions or would like to invite Amy Julia to speak.

Overview

Amy Julia enjoys speaking and teaching with small and mid-size groups and in front of large crowds. She has experience as a keynote speaker, on panels, and in workshop and retreat settings. She is happy to craft a message and structure her time with you in the way that best serves the needs of your community. 

Typically she speaks on topics that relate to her work on faith, family, disability, privilege, race, social divisions and cultural healing and cultural change. More specifically, she has spoken recently on inclusion and belonging, our common humanity, bridging social divisions with love, love and fear, identity and achievement, bioethics related to prenatal testing, and more.

Speaking Formats and Length

Talks

Amy Julia primarily offers talks that are 30-45 minutes in length and when possible takes another 15-30 minutes for Q and A or discussion. She also enjoys speaking alongside other people and participating in panel discussions. With topics related to White Picket Fences in particular, she encourages groups to establish opportunities for participants to follow up from the talk with discussion groups and specific ways to respond to the themes of the book on a local level.

Sample Talks:

  • Love Is Stronger than Fear: Rethinking the Conversation About Privilege
  • Turning Toward Love: How God’s Love Transforms Us and Heals Our Broken World
  • A Holistic Response to the Harm of Social Divisions 
  • What if there is More? Considering Life Beyond the White Picket Fence
  • How to Talk with Children about Faith
  • Identity and Achievement: Rethinking Perfection 

Workshops

Amy Julia has offered workshops in a variety of settings, from 4th grade students to entire school faculties to parents’ organizations. She will come to your school, church, or other institution to work with leaders and staff to reflect on the institution’s strengths and challenges when it comes to equity and inclusion. She will lead groups through a process of reflection that provides a way to express gratitude for aspects of the institution’s past while also acknowledging harm from that past and addressing concerns and opportunities for the future. 

Sample Workshop: 

A 3-hour workshop for school or church leadership on a holistic response to privilege

The workshop begins with Amy Julia offering a keynote address which defines what privilege is and what it is not, considers the harm privilege does to human relationships, and reflects on the challenges and possibilities inherent in institutions. The next 2 hours include time for questions and work in small groups. Participants will begin to use their “heads, hearts, and hands” to respond meaningfully and specifically to the harm of social divisions within their institutional history and present moment.   

Retreats/Conferences

Amy Julia loves speaking at retreats and conferences. She typically speaks during 3-4 large group sessions for 30-45 minutes at a time. In church settings, her most recent retreats have centered around the love of God. By growing in their personal understanding of the boundless and transformative power of God’s love, this series empowers participants to identify areas in their own lives that need healing, learn practices for remaining connected to that love, and then participate in a bigger work of love within communities. In other settings, Amy Julia offers a series of talks designed to help participants understand the social structures that lead to social division, acknowledge the harm of those divisions, and take meaningful, specific actions to respond to that harm. 

Sample Retreat/Conference Series:

Rooted and Established in Love: How Receiving and Participating in the Love of God Changes Lives

  • Talk One: How God’s Love Shapes Reality
  • Talk Two: What Keeps Us from God’s Love?
  • Talk Three: Receiving the Love of God
  • Talk Four: Participating in the Love of God 

A Holistic Response to the Harm of Privilege

  • Talk One: What Privilege Is and What It Is Not
  • Talk Two: The Harm of Privilege
  • Talk Three: Responding to the Harm of Privilege with Head, Heart, and Hands 

Online Classroom/Webinar

Amy Julia is also available for Skype/Zoom conversations with students and other groups. She regularly speaks via video call about prenatal testing with students in a Bioethics class at Riverdale School. She has offered a webinar to pastors and church leaders on the Healing the Wounds of Privilege. She is also available to Skype with other interested groups including book clubs. 

Speaking Policy

Meals, Travel, Lodging

Amy Julia requests reimbursement for travel, meals, and lodging. This might include items such as gas, rental car, airfare, taxi/Uber, airport transfer, hotel, and meals while traveling and during the event. She will usually drive her own car if the event is 150 miles or less away from home. She generally flies from Hartford or NYC airports. Whenever possible, she looks for the most affordable flights/accommodation that meets the parameters of the speaking engagement.

Speaking Fees

Amy Julia’s speaking fee reflects both the time spent in preparation, travel and on site. Below are general parameters, but may be adjusted depending on the exact request:

$250 for an hour-long online discussion with students or book club

$500 for an hour-long online teaching or webinar

$1000 for events that include one talk and are less than 150 miles from home

$2500 for events that include one talk and require significant travel and/or one night away

$4000 for events that include two talks and one night away

$6000 for events that include three or more talks and two nights away

Availability

Amy Julia is available to speak throughout the year. She typically agrees to get on an airplane once a month, and typically agrees to weekend retreats once a quarter. Please see her website speaking page for previously announced speaking engagements.

Books

You will need to purchase books through a local bookstore, online, or work with Amy Julia to procure books. It will be up to the event host to anticipate the number of books needed and provide someone on site to cover sales transactions. If you are interested in Amy Julia signing books, this needs to be discussed in advance and a plan set up for when and where this will happen at an event.

Invite Amy Julia 

Please fill out this form if you have any additional questions or would like to invite Amy Julia to speak.