Julia Ayala Harris grew up in a large Catholic family in Chicago, Illinois. After attending Wheaton College, where she studied sociology and philosophy, Ayala Harris earned her B.A. in Nonprofit Management and Social Sciences from Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois, in 2005. That same year, she and her husband, John, an administrator and professor at the University of Oklahoma, “felt called to give away [their] belongings, like in Matthew 19:21, and move to South Sudan.” They volunteered there for the next three years while raising their daughter, Isabella.
On returning to the United States, Ayala Harris worked for a variety of community groups and non-profit organizations. Having converted to The Episcopal Church in young adulthood, she became active in her local parish, St. John’s Episcopal Church in Norman, Oklahoma. She also served on the Board of Directors for the diocesan Episcopal Church Women from 2014 to 2019, and represented the Diocese of Oklahoma as a deputy to General Convention in 2018 and 2022. At the national level, she served on the Task Force for Reimagining the Episcopal Church from 2013 to 2015 and began serving on the Executive Council in 2015. She continued her studies, earning a Master of Public Administration from the University of Oklahoma in 2020 and entering the doctoral program in political science.
In 2022, at the 80th General Convention in Baltimore, Maryland, Ayala Harris was chosen by her peers in the House of Deputies to succeed the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings as the 34th President of the House of Deputies. Elected on the third ballot during Day 2, Ayala Harris, a first-generation Mexican American, became the first woman of color to serve in that role. Of her election she said, “You have sent the message to church Geeks everywhere; that if you try hard and you read the canons and you read all the minutes, that you can actually make a huge difference in this church.”
Ayala Harris was elected on the first ballot to a second term on Day 3 of the 81st General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky receiving 521 of the 826 votes cast.