| Betsy grew up in rural Kalkaska County. She was a Michigan Press Association award winning journalist in northern Michigan for 6 years, starting as a reporter for The Leader and the Kalkaskian county weekly. She was the editor of the Elk Rapids Town Meeting weekly newspaper for 3 of those years.
She put herself through school at Northwestern Michigan College and then Ferris State University through the University Center while working 2 jobs. she has her bachelor's degree in social work and has served families in Grand Traverse, Leelanau and Benzie counties as a Head Start social worker.
Betsy became deeply involved in Michigan citizen politics in 2011 as a founding member of the region's grassroots Reject Emergency Managers. This citizen group organized spontaneously and gathered over 30,000 of the more than 200,000 signatures to put a Repeal of P.A. 4 on the ballot.
Betsy ran against incumbent Wayne Schmidt for the 104th in 2012. |