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 four decades ago, and my writing life began in 1977 with the publication of the first of my two travel books, a collection of walking tours of European cities called “Walk Straight Through the Square.” Both passions have continued unabated ever since.

Julie has been a professor with the City University of New York since 1968, and in addition to being an ITN Contributing Editor, she has served as travel editor of Archaeology Magazine, has written for 39 magazines, including Archaeology Odyssey, British Heritage, Great Expeditions, Geomundo, Lithuanian Heritage and Hispanic, and has written travel stories for 32 newspapers, including the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Pittsburgh Post Gazette and Denver Post. She estimates that she has had at least 500 stories published over the past 25 years.

She continued, “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 at least 50 travel pieces himself; My daughter, Katie, adopted from Chile 26 years ago at the age of four, who has served as my photographer on many trips, and an assortment of rescued felines who allow us to live with them.

“Adding to the mix are three children living in two different families in Lithuania — Ruta, Rasa and Lukas — whom we have been sponsoring and visiting for at least 10 years and who have added texture and richness to our much-too-hectic lives. We also are sponsoring, have recently added, two Lithuanian ‘grandmothers’.”