Chapel Hill Native Missy Julian Fox Directing UNC Visitors' Center

Posted on Oct. 13, 2008

The new face at the University’s front door will be a familiar one to the community. About one and a half years after handing over the reins to Franklin Street landmark Julian’s College Shop to her brother, clothing designer Alexander Julian ’69, Chapel Hill native Missy Julian Fox ’73 has become the new director of the UNC Visitors’ Center, also on Franklin Street. She started her new job Oct. 6.

“Missy Julian Fox knows our campus and community as well as anyone,” said Nancy Davis ’82, associate vice chancellor for University Relations. “She’ll be a great ambassador for us – whether our campus visitors are from the local community or from out of town.”

Fox will market the Visitors’ Center across the University campus and help groups in planning events and in providing services for visitors. She will manage a group of undergraduate students who provide tours and services to visitors, working closely with the offices of undergraduate and graduate admissions, as well as the Chapel Hill and Orange County Visitors Bureau.

Fox received a bachelor’s degree in English from Carolina and a master’s degree in education from Boston University. After working as a medical editor for the Lahey Clinic, she taught in Boston and Chapel Hill schools. She was a leader in the Triangle-wide movement to start a children’s museum in the mid-1980s that created the Blue Marble, A Children’s Center for Design and Invention, where she served as chair of the board of directors during its decade-long span. She has created her own line of clothing for children, Missy Julian Inc., with fabrics designed by her brother and assumed her father’s place in running Julian’s College Shop after his death in 1993.

Fox was a 17-year member of the board of visitors of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and was the founder of the center’s signature fundraising events, the Beach Ball and Tickled Pink. Active in both the Downtown Commission and the Downtown Partnership, she also has served as a board member of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce and as chair of the Chapel Hill Historical Society.

The Visitors’ Center is located at 250 E. Franklin Street, at the west entrance to the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center. Its hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

---