Julie Benker O’Brien was appointed as Aquatics Coordinator at Roger Williams University in July of 2003. Shortly after she was named the first Men’s and Women’s Swimming & Diving coach at the university. In the spring of 2007 O'Brien relinquished her role as aquatics coordinator while remaining the Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving head coach. Since becoming head coach, both the Men’s and Women’s teams have won the TCCC Invitational consecutively for the past four seasons. Recently in the 2008-09, the men’s squad took third at the NEISDA championship, and in the process broke 15 school records.
Julie attended Union College in Schenectady, NY where she earned a B.S. in Mathematics while being a 17-time Division III All-American. She concluded her collegiate swimming career by winning the national championship 1993 Division III 100 yard backstroke.
As she pursued a Masters of Arts in Teaching, she coached at Albany Starfish, a USS swimming program, and was an assistant coach at Union. She then, she became the head coach of the Clinton Cudas and assistant coach at Hamilton College. Just prior to her arrival at Roger Williams, Julie had spent seven years as the head men’s and women’s swimming coach at the University of Rochester.
A native of Rehoboth, MA, Julie was excited to return to New England. She and her husband, Chris, who is the Men’s and Women’s Tennis Head Coach at RWU, reside in Warren with their two children.
