User:GfJules

Jules Dowler Shepard (born 1970) is an American entrepreneur, celiac disease patient-expert and gluten-free advocate who lives in Maryland. She is a published author, food writer, associate magazine editor, blogger, baking industry and gluten-free expert consultant, web radio host, speaker, mother, and founder of the gluten-free flour companies Jules Gluten Free™ and gfJules™. She is known for her passion for creating gluten-free recipes and her community activism.

Early life

Born in North Carolina, Shepard graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1992 with Phi Beta Kappa honors. Three years later, she received her juris doctorate and master of laws in International Law from the Duke University School of Law. Shepard was a prosecuting attorney in West Virginia working under a federal Violence Against Women Act grant when she was diagnosed in 1999 with celiac disease after ten years of illness and misdiagnoses.

After her diagnosis, Shepard made it her mission to educate and support other celiacs and to develop truly delicious recipes for those living gluten free as well as for their family and friends who are not.

Career:

Books

Her first gluten-free cookbook, Nearly Normal Cooking for Gluten-Free Eating, was published in 2006, delivering more than 140 simple ingredient, family-style gluten-free recipes to a community that never had such a resource.

To guide, inform and uplift other celiacs and those with non-celiac gluten sensitivity experiencing the often difficult transition to living gluten free, Shepard published her second book titled The First Year®: Celiac Disease and Living Gluten-Free in 2008. A foreword is attributed to internationally renowned celiac disease expert and activist Dr. Alessio Fasano.

Free for All Cooking, Shepard’s third published book, was released in November, 2010. More than a gluten-free cookbook, it tackles the top 8 food allergens as well, and offers readers a complete substitution guide which teaches them to tailor each recipe to suit their entire family's needs.

Shepard appears as a “celebrity chef” with a dedicated chapter in Living Without’s Best Gluten-Free Cookbook (2013). She is also recognized as a featured contibutor to Dr. Alessio Fasano’s book, Gluten Freedom (2014).

Magazines

Shepard is a regular contributor to many magazines, including but not limited to Living Without’s Gluten-Free & More (where she acts as Associate Editor), Gluten-Free Living , and Prevention.com .

Advocacy

In 2011, Shepard made national headlines (The Washington Post; USA Today; Forbes; Huffington Post) when she co-organized and co-founded the grassroots celiac disease awareness group, 1in133.org .

To gain the attention of the FDA and attain their long-overdue gluten-free food labeling guidelines, Shepard and co-founder John Forberger galvanized the community, started a successful petition drive and formed a team to lobby the FDA. With the help of industry friends, Shepard then constructed an 11-foot-tall, one-ton cake in Washington, D.C. The FDA attended the event, and not only acknowledged the lack of regulations, but promised to front-burner them. The final labeling regulations which resulted from their efforts went into effect on August 5, 2014.

Since 2006, Shepard has spoken at celiac support group meetings, expos, conventions, and trade shows around the country to educate those living with celiac disease and other dietary restrictions, as well as members of the manufacturing industry wanting to serve the gluten-free community. She has been a featured speaker at events such as Gluten-Free Food Allergy Fests , Gluten-Free Allergy Free Wellness Events , national and regional Gluten Intolerance Group conferences,* Gluten-Free Living Conference , The Healthy Villi Conference , The Utah Gluten-Free Expo and National Products Expo.

To support and inspire others living gluten free during the holiday cookie season, Shepard founded “The Gluten-Free Cookie Swap” in 2010. Ordinary bakers, bloggers and cookbook authors alike, submit recipes from around the world and winning recipe developers take home large food-related prize packages. Winning recipes are shared on blogs, Shepard’s Pinterest boards, Facebook, Twitter, and other on-line homes. The recipes reside permanently on Facebook/GlutenFreeCookieSwap, where users can search and copy them for their own use any time of year.

Media appearances

Shepard has written for or been featured in numerous issues of print publications including, among others, Woman’s World, Allergic Living , Delight Gluten-Free Magazine , Gluten-Free & More , Gluten-Free Living , Restaurateur, USA Today,* The Washington Post and The Washingtonian Magazine . She has been featured in online media outlets and blogs such as Glamour , Forbes , Foodista , and Huffington Post , among others, for both her businesses and her advocacy work.

On television, she’s educated viewers with gluten-free recipes for food on regional and national news segments including FOX DC-5 , FOX DC-3*, WUSA _________and WBAL. Since 2012, In addition to being a guest on many radio shows including Doctor Radio and WYPR (Maryland NPR), Shepard also hosts an online radio show called The Gluten-Free Voice . Guests have included Dr. Alessio Fasano , author Carol Fenster , NFCA director Alice Bast , Gluten Intolerance Group director Cynthia Kupper,* director of the American Celiac Disease Alliance Andrea Levario, and author Beth Hillson, among many others.

Business owner

A self-trained chef, Shepard founded Nearly Normal Cooking, LLC in 2006 after the publication of her first book. She began producing gluten-free flour and baking mixes under this label in 2008. She and other business partners in 2009 founded the flour and baking mix company Jules LLC (dba Jules Gluten Free) and grew the company to over one million dollars in sales by 2014. In March of 2014, she resigned in protest over management disputes within the company, and struck out on her own to launch gfJules™.

Support for gfJules™ was immediate within the gluten-free community, due to Shepard’s popularity as a gluten-free advocate and passionate industry leader. Bloggers railed against Shepard’s former partners and a backlash against what was left of Jules Gluten Free soon spread due to social media and blogger campaigns.

Shepard directs her popular new company, gfJules™, in the manufacture of gluten-free flour and mixes that are certified gluten-free, and are free from the top 8 food allergens, In addition, her flour is now GMO-free. gfJules™ items are sold online and in premium grocers and health food stores. The new gfJules™ product line includes all purpose flour, sandwich bread mix, pancake/waffle mix, pizza crust mix, cornbread mix, original cookie mix, sugar cookie mix, graham cracker mix, muffin mix and more.

Blog

In order to reach gluten-free families globally, Shepard started a blog, (formerly called “Jules Speaks Gluten Free” now found at gfJules.com), in 2010. The blog hosts over 375 posts sharing tested gluten-free recipes and advice on living gluten free .

In addition, Shepard publishes a weekly recipe newsletter to tens of thousands of gluten-free readers, and personally engages with thousands of followers daily on social media, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Google+.

Personal life

Shepard lives just outside of Baltimore, Maryland with her husband Jeff and their children.